Delhi HC admits fresh plea challenging arrest of UNLF cadres by NIA

Delhi High Court admits fresh petition challenging UNLF cadres' arrest by NIA, rejects NIA's preliminary objection.

The Delhi High Court has admitted a fresh petition challenging the arrest of three cadres of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), a banned outfit from Manipur, challenging their arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in March this year.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani rejected the “preliminary objection” raised by NIA that the current petition by the trio was not maintainable as they had already agitated the same grounds in a previous petition before a Division Bench of the court.

The trio - Thokchom Shyamjai Singh, Laimayum Anand Sharma, and Salam Ibomcha Meitei – were arrested by the NIA, alleging that they are in involved in a trans-national conspiracy hatched by a foreign-based leadership of terror outfits, to exploit the ethnic unrest and to execute terrorist attacks in Manipur and to wage war against the Government of India.

According to NIA, Singh is the self-styled Army Chief of UNLF and Sharma and Meitei are his associates, who are alleged to have been involved in raising funds for UNLF by committing extortion, as well as recruiting cadres and procuring weapons to incite violence in Manipur.

The trio have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The petitioners, through advocate Siddhartha Borgohain, have contested the legality of their arrest and subsequent remand on the ground that it was in violation of the direction of the Supreme Court which require that the “grounds of arrest” ought to have been communicated to the petitioners in writing at the time of their arrest.

This is the second time the petitioners have approached the court. An earlier habeas corpus plea before the Division Bench of the court was dismissed as withdrawn on April 16, 2024, after it transpired during the course of the hearing that the petitioners were not “missing” but that they were in the custody of the NIA.