Amnesty International India chair Aakar Patel said on Thursday evening that he was stopped at the airport yet again despite a court order telling the Central Bureau of Investigation to withdraw its look-out circular for him. Patel had previously been stopped from travelling to the United States from Bengaluru airport on Wednesday.
“CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] has not taken me off their look-out circular,” he said in a tweet on Thursday night.
A look-out notice is usually issued to prevent a person from leaving the country and remains valid up to a year or till the agency cancels or renews it.
Earlier on Thursday, a Delhi court had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to immediately withdraw its look-out circular issued against Patel and urged the agency’s director to issue a written apology to Patel acknowledging the lapse on part of his subordinate.
After Patel was stopped at the airport on Wednesday, he said immigration officials told him that he had been put on an exit control list by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
This was despite a court ordering that his passport be returned to him for a lecture tour of the US between March 1 and May 30.
An immigration officer had told Patel that he was on the look-out circular in connection with a case “the Modi government has filed against Amnesty International India”. The organisation has been accused of money laundering and criminal conspiracy in a case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Amnesty International India has vehemently denied the allegation.
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