Delhi HC lets ex-PFI chairman Abubacker withdraw plea for bail on medical grounds

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday permitted former Popular Front of India (PFI) chairman E Abubacker to withdraw his plea seeking release on account of ill health in a case registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

A bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav allowed Abubacker to withdraw his plea after his lawyer sought liberty to approach the trial court since the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed the charge sheet.

“Leave and liberty granted and we have not expressed any opinion on the matter,” the bench said.

The counsel for NIA told the court that the bail plea will now have to be decided on merits.

Abubacker was arrested by the anti-terror probe agency during a massive crackdown on the banned organisation last year and is currently in judicial custody.

In his plea filed last year, Abubacker said that he was suffering from multiple ailments including a rare type of oesophagus cancer, Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, diabetes and loss of vision.

Abubacker, who was arrested in September last year, earlier asked the high court to shift him out of jail and place him under house arrest, citing the Supreme Court order allowing Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest. But the high court declined, reasoning that he himself had claimed that his ailments were such that he cannot be treated at home.

NIA told the court that Abubacker was trying to derail the process of investigation by filing pleas regarding his medical condition simultaneously before the trial court and the high court.

It said the investigation against him was pending and he was getting the best possible medical treatment.