The court established that under Section 43D(5) of UAPA, a higher threshold for bail exists, requiring a prima facie case against the accused, which was met due to serious allegations of conspiracy and possession of illegal arms.

JUDGMENT :

Prathiba M. Singh, J.

1. This hearing has been held through hybrid mode.

2. This is an appeal filed by the Appellant - Moirangthem Anand Singh challenging the impugned order dated 24th August, 2024 by which his bail application has been dismissed by the Special NIA Court in RC-23/2023/NIA/DLI.

3. The present case is intricately linked to multiple FIRs arising from distinct yet interrelated incidents. In the interest of clarity, the Court considers it appropriate to provide a comprehensive summary of the background facts.

Brief Background

4. This appeal arises in the backdrop of the conflict in Manipur between the Meitei and Kuki communities. At the relevant time, there were reports of several government armouries being looted by mobs in 2023. In this regard, various FIRs were filed by the Manipur State Police. One such FIR is FIR No. 54(05)2023 filed by PS Heingang, in respect of an incident of looting from the Arms Kote of Manipur Police Training College, Pangei (hereinafter ‘MPTC’). The same was thereafter transferred to CBI and was re-registered as RC/6(S)/2023/C81/SC8/Kolkata on 9th June, 2023 (hereinafter ‘CBI FIR’).

5. Subsequently, another FIR, being RC-23/2023/NIA/DLI (hereinafter ‘NIA FIR’) was registered on 19th July, 2023 by the National Investigation Agency, New Delhi (hereinafter ‘NIA’), under Sections 120B, 121A & 122 IPC & Sections-18,18B & 39 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (hereinafter ‘UAPA’) based on certain intelligence about a transnational conspiracy being executed in Manipur which was alleged to be abetted by Myanmar-based terror outfits aiming to wage war against the Government of India. The suspected offence in the said FIR is as under: “Credible Inputs have been received in respect of a transnational conspiracy hatched by Myanmar based leadership of terror outfits operationally active in the North Eastern Indian stales to exploit the current ethnic unrest in the state of Manipur to wage a war against Government of India and execute terrorist attacks thereby exacerbating the current security situation in the Manipur.”

6. On 3rd September, 2023, owing to the continued disturbances in the State of Manipur, District Magistrate, Imphal East promulgated Section 144 of Cr.P.C in Imphal East. During the said period, on 6th September, 2023 at about 20:00 hours, the team of Special Commando Unit of Manipur Police was deployed for checking and frisking duty of passing vehicles at Kongba Wangkhei Road near Meitei Mayek High School.

7. During one such checking, the team is said to have intercepted a white coloured Mahindra Bolero vehicle bearing registration no. MN-06LB-6905 in which admittedly the Appellant and four other individuals were caught wearing camouflaged clothes (resembling CDO, Manipur Police Uniform) along with various weapons. The description of the weapons that were recovered from their possession are as follows:

(i) 1(one) INSAS Rifle bearing no 18531215 having 4(four) magazine with 78 live rounds;

(ii) 1 (one) SLR rifle bearing no 58478 having 3(three) magazine with 50 live rounds and;

(iii) 2 (two) .303 Rifles bearing no. D91642 and E90617 with l (one) magazine each containing 5 live rounds in each magazine.

8. These weapons were identified to be a part of the set of weapons looted by mobs from various armouries including Arms Kote, MPTC. The PS Porompat, Manipur Police registered FIR No. 1234(09)023 (hereinafter ‘Manipur FIR’) in this regard and arrested the Appellant and the other four co-accused on 17th September, 2023.

9. On the same day, all the five accused in the Manipur FIR were produced before the concerned Special Judge, NIA in Imphal, by the Manipur Police seeking police custody for a period of 9 days. At that time, a report was filed Mr. R.K. Tejbir Singh, Investigating Officer (IO) of the Manipur FIR which stated as under:

“2. The brief fact of the case is that on 16/09/2023 at around 7:30 pm, on received of an information from reliable source, a combined team of Imphal Ea