Madras High Court to listen to audio clip to decide on quashing petition filed by Madurai lawyer arrested by NIA alleging PFI links

Bar is the mother of the bench and courts must ensure that lawyers are not intimidated or prevented from practicing the law freely, the Madras High Court said on Monday..A bench of Justices M sundar and R Sakthivel was hearing a quashing petition filed by Madurai based lawyer M Mohammed Abbas, who was arrested by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) in May this year on charges of being a member of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI). "Our thought process is that the Bar is the mother of the Bench and it should be permitted to practice law without any fear. We are only trying to determine if there was any intimidation in the case," the bench said while hearing the plea. The NIA said that it will submit an audio clip would prove the culpability of Abbas.The Court then posted the case for hearing on June 21. Abbas and 4 others were arrested by the NIA on May 9 in connection with the Tamil Nadu PFI criminal conspiracy case.According to a press release by NIA, investigations revealed that the accused had conspired and planned to eliminate their 'perceived enemies' who were not aligned to the PFI ideology and were opposed to its plans to establish an Islamic State in India by 2047.The release further stated that in pursuance of the conspiracy, the accused had radicalized a large number of PFI cadres, especially youth, handpicked by the outfit’s leadership, and had also trained them in the use of different kinds of weapons to assault, maim and kill their adversaries.Abbas's counsel and office bearers of the Madurai Bar Association vouched before the bench that Abbas was a senior and much respected member of the Bar. They said he had been a regular practitioner before the Madurai courts and that he had been practicing for the last 16 years. He had also contested the last TN Bar Council elections and lost by a few votes. He secured 900 votes, they said. Abbas' counsel R Vivekananthan also told the Court that Abbas had been regularly appearing in courts for the PFI until it was banned and was therefore, being victimised. The quashing petition filed by Abbas further claimed that his arrest was a clear case of malafide as the NIA had found an easy victim in him. The plea said that the central agency was particularly offended by a Facebook post and a complaint against one if its Superintendents of Police made by Abbas, and that the post and complaint were the immediate triggers for his arrest..However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the NIA, told the Court that the central agency had adequate evidence, including an "incriminating" audio clip against Abbas. He further said that the agency had treaded cautiously because Abbas was a lawyer himself. However, the mere fact that he was a lawyer should not act as any sort of "guaranteed protection" for an accused, Mehta said..The Court noted that though the NIA had refused allegations of malafide, Abbas' petition for quashing the case against him was predicated mainly on the point of malafide. Mehta argued that the point of malafide must be ascertained during trial and not at a quashing petition. He said that the Court was free to go through the case diary and the content of the audio clip if it wished to satisfy its conscience. The Court then directed the NIA to keep the audio clip and the case diary ready and circulate all judgements cited by the Solicitir General by June 21.