After Delhi HC sets aside arrests of UNLF members, NIA says studying order

A day after the Delhi High Court set aside the arrests of three United National Liberation Front (UNLF) members from Manipur after noting that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had failed to provide them with the grounds of their arrest in writing, a government official said that the federal probe agency is “studying the order”.  

On Thursday, a Delhi High Court Bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani vitiated the arrests of Thokchom Shyamjai Singh, Laimayum Anand Sharma, and Ibomcha Meitei, who the NIA had arrested in March 2024 on UAPA charges of raising funds for the UNLF, a proscribed outfit, through extortion; recruiting cadres and procuring weapons “to foment violence in the State of Manipur, by fanning ethnic strife”.  

In the order, the Delhi High Court said, “Notwithstanding the seriousness of the allegations made against the petitioners, there is only one inference that can be drawn, namely that in the present case the NIA has failed to comply with the mandate of serving the grounds of arrest upon the petitioners in writing, whether at the time of arrest or even later-on, whether in the arrest memos or in the remand applications.” 

The court set aside their arrests and directed for them to be released from judicial custody unless they are required in any other cases. Based on the NIA’s case, the ED had initiated a money-laundering case, in which it had arrested at least two of the accused in October last year and filed a chargesheet in the case in December last year.  

The Delhi High Court also noted that even though neither of the parties pressed this point, the record showed that “no transit remand or other order of a court was obtained by the NIA before bringing the petitioners to Delhi after taking them into custody in Imphal, Manipur”. It added, “Therefore, it would appear that no legal representation was afforded to the petitioners at that stage.” 

While the NIA is studying the order of the Delhi High Court, this order comes days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Guwahati in Assam for the Advantage 2.0 Investment and Infrastructure Summit on February 24-25.

The Delhi Meitei Coordinating Committee, a civil society organisation, has issued an open invitation to the PM to visit Manipur when he comes to Assam for the Summit, on behalf of both Meitei and Kuki victims of the conflict. In the invitation sent to the PMO on Thursday, the DMCC said Manipur had suffered an unprecedented crisis for the past 21 months and that “your continued silence and absence from Manipur have fuelled growing resentment and the perception of government inaction or complicity in the crisis”. 

In court, the NIA contended that the arrests were made in March 2024, two months before the Supreme Court precedent that mandated “in-writing” grounds for arrest in the Prabir Purkayastha judgement. Further, it had argued that the “grounds of arrest were explained to the petitioners orally; and that later the grounds of arrest were served upon the petitioners in writing as part of the remand applications”. 

The accused, on the other hand, argued that the precedent would apply in their case, adding that they do not understand English and since they were assigned legal aid counsel who could not speak their language, their statutory and Constitutional rights had been violated. 

The court held that the precedent would apply, further ruling that the explanations given in remand applications cannot qualify as spelling out grounds of arrest. Another argument of the NIA had been that the “nature” of the custody in this case was made under a Section of the CrPC that did not require the burden of serving grounds of arrest in writing. 

To this, the court said, “The NIA must remind itself that a constitutional mandate cannot be circumvented by resorting to jugglery of statutory provisions. These arguments, therefore, also must be rejected.” 

In their investigations, the NIA alleged that the accused, which purportedly included the Chief of Army, Chief of Intelligence and a member of UNLF, were “part of a transnational conspiracy hatched by Myanmar-based terror outfits, to exploit the ethnic unrest in the State of Manipur and to wage war against the Government of India”.  

The agency said it has filed a chargesheet against the accused alleging offences under Sections 120-B/121-B and 122 of the IPC (criminal conspiracy, waging war against India), and Sections 18/18-B and 39 of the UAPA.