Delhi court grants bail to London resident in Indian high commission attack

New Delhi: A Delhi court has granted bail to a London resident in a case related to the alleged attack on the High Commission of India in London in March 2023.

According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the incident on March 19, 2023 and an agitation organised on March 22, 2023, in which Inderpal Singh Gaba, a resident of Hounslow in west London, participated, were part of the same transaction.

However, principal district and sessions judge Vimal Kumar Yadav, in an order on January 29, said Gaba's role seemed to be confined to the incident on March 22, 2023.

Both the incidents were led and planned by the same set of people with a clear objective of influencing the crackdown on "Waris Punjab De" and its leader Amritpal Singh, the NIA said.

"The NIA is unable to establish any link of the applicant with the incident of March 19, 2023. He was neither present at the spot nor associated with arranging anything for the demonstration and for that matter, nothing could be shown that he was part of the conspiracy to organise the demonstration on March 19, 2023 or for that matter on March 22, 2023," the order said.

The court said the allegations over the March 22, 2023 incident even if "taken true" still did not make a case for life imprisonment or death penalty.

"He is a young man with clean antecedents as nothing objectionable could be brought on record or shown...his complicity or involvement in any manner could not be shown in the incident of March 19, 2023," the judge said.

The court observed though "insult to national honour" was a serious allegation against him, Gaba wasn't accused of violence.

It appeared the case's trial, which hadn't commenced yet was likely to take "a very long time", added the court.

"In such circumstances, when there is no mechanism available with the human race to return time to anyone, how far then it would be appropriate to keep a person under custody under such allegations?" asked the court.

The NIA cited a photograph where Gaba is allegedly posing with an AK47 rifle and claimed "it reflected and was indicative of his tendencies".

The court dismissed the argument saying aside from the photo, which was found in the accused's cellphone's photo gallery, neither any such rifle was recovered, nor could it be said conclusively that it was an AK 47 rifle or a dummy.

"In this era of deepfake photoshop, etc., there can't be any certainty about what has been shown is correct. More so, it is not very uncommon that people pose for photographs with all kinds of stuff," the judge said.

Gaba was detained by the Immigration Authorities at Attari border on December 9, 2023 while he was coming from London via Pakistan.

Later on, he was arrested on April 25, 2024 under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Prevention of Insult of National Honour Act, and IPC.