The court established that the extension of the investigation period beyond the statutory 90-day period was permissible under Section 43D of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and the report of the Public Prosecutor indicating the progress of the investigation and specific reasons for the detention of the accused justified the extension.

1. It is settled law that once the period of 90 days, as stipulated under clause (a) (i) of the proviso to Sub-section (2) of Section 167 Cr.P.C., came to an end, the right of a person arrested in connection with the commission of an offence to be released on statutory bail commenced and could not be extinguished by a subsequent application for extension of the period of custody.

2. The provisions of Section 167(2) of the Code were modified by virtue of Section 43D of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The modification of the provisions of Section 167(2) Cr.P.C. by virtue of Section 43D of the aforesaid Act is extracted hereinbelow:-

“43D. Modified application of certain provisions of the Code. - (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code or any other law, every offence punishable under this Act shall be deemed to be a cognizable offence within the meaning of clause (c) of section 2 of the Code, and "cognizable case" as defined in that clause shall be construed accordingly.

(2) Section 167 of the Code shall apply in relation to a case involving an offence punishable under this Act subject to the modification that in sub-section (2),-

(a) the references to "fifteen days", "ninety days" and "sixty days", wherever they occur, shall be construed as references to "thirty days", "ninety days" and "ninety days" respectively; and

(b) after the proviso, the following provisos shall be inserted, namely:-

Provided further that if it is not possible to complete the investigation within the said period of ninety days, the Court may if it is satisfied with the report of the Public Prosecutor indicating the progress of the investigation and the specific reasons for the detention of the accused beyond the said period of ninety days, extend the said period up to one hundred and eighty days:

Provided also that if the police officer making the investigation under this Act, requests, for the purposes of investigation, for police custody from judicial custody of any person in judicial custody, he shall file an affidavit stating the reasons for doing so and shall also explain the delay, if any, for requesting such police custody.".

3. In view of modification to the provisions of Section 167(2) Cr.P.C., the period of 90 days stipulated for completion of investigation and filing of charge-sheet, was modified by virtue of the amended proviso, which indicated that if the investigation could not be completed within 90 days and if the Court was satisfied with the report of the Public Prosecutor indicating the progress of the investigation and the specific reasons for detention of the accused beyond the period of 90 days, extend the said period upto 180 days. Meaning thereby, the custody of an accused could be directed initially for a period of 90 days and, thereafter, for a further period of 90 days for the purpose of filing charge-sheet. In the event the charge-sheet was not filed even within the extended period of 180 days, the conditions directing that the accused persons shall be released on bail if he is prepared to do and does furnish bail, would become operative.

4. For offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, investigation can be conducted by the National Investigating Agency and the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 would apply concerning investigation as also cognizance of offences by Courts, but as modified by the applicable provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The cognizance of reports had to be by the Designated Courts constituted as per law under the NIA Act.

5. The three petitioners, namely, Mohd. Maroof @ Ibrahim, Wakar Azhar, Mohd. Saqib Ansari have filed the present petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C read with Article 226 of Constitution of India or in the alternate Criminal Appeal under Section 21 of N.I.A. Act, 2008 for quashing of order dated 7th June, 2014 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge-02/FTC, New Delhi District, Patiala House Courts, New