Delhi High Court seeks NIA's stand on PFI leader OMA Salam's plea for interim bail

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) stand on a plea for interim bail by PFI leader OMA Salam, arrested under the anti-terror law UAPA filed against the banned organisation and its members.

A bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Amit Sharma issued a notice on an appeal by Salam against a trial court order denying him the relief. It asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file its response within two weeks.

The counsel for the petitioner sought two weeks' interim bail on the ground that Salam's daughter died in April and his wife was in a "depressive state".

The court listed the matter for hearing on July 25.

Salam, the chairman of Popular Front of India (PFI), was arrested by NIA during a massive crackdown on the banned organisation in 2022.

The NIA has alleged that the PFI, its officer bearers and its members hatched a criminal conspiracy to raise funds for committing acts of terror in various parts of the country and were conducting training camps to indoctrinate and train their cadres for this purpose.

Preceding the ban, in near-simultaneous raids across the country as part of a multi-agency operation spearheaded by the NIA, a large number of PFI activists were detained or arrested in 11 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.

The arrests were made in states and Union Territories, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Delhi and Rajasthan.

The government banned the PFI and several of its associate organisations on September 28, 2022, for five years under the stringent anti-terror law the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), accusing them of having links with global terror groups like ISIS.