A Delhi court granted bail to Inderpal Singh Gaba, linked to an alleged March 2023 attack on the Indian High Commission in London, due to insufficient evidence. The court questioned the claims of the National Investigation Agency and acknowledged Gaba’s limited involvement in protests. Concerns were raised about trial delays and the credibility of evidence presented.
New Delhi: A Delhi court has granted bail to Inderpal Singh Gaba, a London resident, in a case related to the alleged attack on the Indian High Commission in London in March 2023. The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence linking him to the March 19 incident and questioned the credibility of the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) claims.
The NIA had claimed that the attack on March 19, 2023, and an agitation organized on March 22, 2023, in which Gaba participated, were part of the same conspiracy. However, Principal District and Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav ruled on January 29 that Gaba’s role appeared to be limited to the March 22 protest and that the NIA failed to establish his involvement in the March 19 attack.
“The NIA is unable to establish any link of the applicant with the incident of March 19, 2023. He was neither present at the spot nor associated with arranging anything for the demonstration and for that matter, nothing could be shown that he was part of the conspiracy to organise the demonstration on March 19, 2023, or for that matter on March 22, 2023,”
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the order stated.
The court acknowledged that the allegations against Gaba, including ‘insult to national honour,’ were serious but pointed out that he was not accused of any violent act. It also noted that even if the charges related to the March 22 incident were considered true, they did not warrant life imprisonment or the death penalty.
“He is a young man with clean antecedents as nothing objectionable could be brought on record or shown… his complicity or involvement in any manner could not be shown in the incident of March 19, 2023,”
the judge said.
The court raised concerns about the delay in the trial, which had not even started yet. It questioned whether it was justified to keep someone in custody for an extended period based on unproven allegations.
“In such circumstances, when there is no mechanism available with the human race to return time to anyone, how far then it would be appropriate to keep a person under custody under such allegations?”
the judge asked.
The NIA submitted a photograph from Gaba’s phone gallery, allegedly showing him posing with an AK-47 rifle, as evidence of his ‘tendencies’. However, the court rejected this argument, saying there was no proof that the rifle was real or that it was even an AK-47.
“In this era of deepfake, photoshop, etc., there can’t be any certainty about what has been shown is correct. More so, it is not very uncommon that people pose for photographs with all kinds of stuff,”
the judge noted.
Gaba was detained by Immigration Authorities at the Attari border on December 9, 2023, while returning from London via Pakistan. He was later arrested on April 25, 2024, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act, and IPC.
With the court now granting him bail, the case raises serious questions about the strength of the evidence presented by the NIA and the delays in the judicial process.
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