Interim bail plea filed by PFI leader OMA Salam rejected by Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday denied OMA Salam, the leader of the Popular Front of India (PFI), interim release. Salam was detained in connection with a case brought under the UAPA anti-terror law, which targeted the banned group and its members.

Salam requested a two-week bail, but a bench of justices Prathiba M. Singh and Amit Sharma rejected his request, stating there was insufficient evidence to support an interim bail order.

The present plea is dismissed, the bench said.

Salam had sought two weeks' interim bail on the ground that his daughter passed away in April and his wife was now in a "depressive state".

Salam, the chairman of the PFI, was arrested by anti-terror agency NIA during a massive crackdown on the banned organisation in 2022.

According to the National Investigation Agency, the PFI, its officer bearers and members hatched a criminal conspiracy to raise funds for committing acts of terror in various parts of the country and were conducting camps to indoctrinate and train their cadres for this purpose.

Preceding the nationwide 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 the ISIS.

With PTI inputs