HC rips into UP ATS: ‘Why man accused of helping Rohingya, Bangladeshis settle illegally not arrested yet?’

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court gave the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) a dressing-down for failing to arrest a man facing charges of heading a group trying to illegally settle Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya in India to create unrest in the country and not filing a chargesheet in the case.

Rejecting the anticipatory bail petition of the accused, Abdul Ghaffar, the court confronted the ATS investigating officer (IO), who was present in the court, why no serious efforts were made by him to apprehend him while his alleged activities endangering the country’s security came to the agency’s notice in 2021, even before the case was lodged in the matter in 2023.

Ghaffar is one of the 10 people the ATS had named as accused in the case registered on October 11, 2023, on charges of human trafficking, cheating, forgery and conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Foreigners Act & Passport Act.

A division bench of Justices Pramod Kumar Srivastava and Rajesh Singh Chauhan said in its January 9 order, “We put on record our serious displeasure and anguish on the callous and careless approach of the Investigating Agency, particularly the Investigating Officer(s) for not taking appropriate and proper steps to apprehend the present appellant in a issue where not only allegations are related for committing cognizable offences but on account of those offences the security, safety, peace and harmony of the country may likely be jeopardized, therefore, this fact must come to the notice of the Chief Secretary of the State of U.P., Additional Chief Secretary, Home, U.P., Principal Secretary/Secretary of the Chief Minister of UP and Director General of Police, U.P., Lucknow for information and appropriate action/ orders.”

“Anticipatory bail to accused in cases of the present nature would greatly harm the investigation and would impede the prospects of unearthing of the ramifications involved in the conspiracy. Public interest also would suffer as a consequence,” the bench observed.

Earlier, the NIA court in Lucknow too had rejected the anticipatory bail petition Ghaffar filed in November 2025.

The Additional Advocate General (AGA) opposed the petition, saying serious allegations have been levelled against the accused and that he is the kingpin of the syndicate wherein the accused are involved in extending “illegal and unwarranted help” to Bangladeshis and the Rohingya.

The court order further read, “We don’t find that this is a fit case to grant anticipatory bail when the allegations are serious, credible evidence and materials are being collected by the investigating agency and there might be likelihood of custodial interrogation of the appellant.”

Referring to the “case diary”, the AGA said the accused allegedly have created a syndicate by opening accounts taking cash by illegal means and through hawala transactions from other countries to extend help to infiltrators and unauthorised people, mainly Bangladeshis and Rohingya, involved in anti-India activities.

The court said the AGA has shown relevant extracts of supplementary case diary wherein the relevant material indicated that a substantial amount of money from some Rohingya people has been transferred to the account of the society run by the accused. The money received was used to construct houses and huts at some places for the Rohingya in India, it was claimed.

It was submitted in the court that some of key functionaries of the group were put under surveillance after the National Investigation Agency and the UP ATS found in October 2021 that anti-national activities were being carried out by them.

Bhupendra Pandey is the Resident Editor of the Lucknow edition of Read More