The court reaffirmed that procedural rules for witness statements under the Code of Criminal Procedure must be followed, but rights of the accused are preserved during trial, and issues can be addressed at that stage.

JUDGMENT :

J. Sreenivas Rao, J.

This intra-court appeal is filed by the appellant aggrieved by the order dated 15.04.2024 passed by the learned Single Judge in dismissing W.P.No.27309 of 2023.

2. Heard Sri Tahir, learned counsel representing Sri Mohammed Moinuddin, learned counsel for the appellant and Sri B.Narasimha Sharma, learned Additional Solicitor General of India appearing for the respondents.

3. Brief facts of the case:

3.1. On 04.07.2022 at 04:30 hours on credible information that some anti-national activities are going on in a house bearing No.9-20-1980/1 at Auto Nagar, near Osmania Masjid, Nizamabad, wherein suspicious persons from other districts of Telangana and other States are visiting the house at odd hours and involving in clandestine activities and some anti-national elements are conducting training classes at the said premises, the Sub- Inspector of Police, Nizamabad VI Town, Nizamabad District, prepared search memo under Section 165 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C) and he along with other officials went to the spot. During their search at the above mentioned house, they found flexi hanging to the wall with the caption of ‘LEGAL AWARENESS PROGRAM’ and under it ‘organising’ was written and also written as POPULAR FRONT OF INDIA (PFI). On enquiry, the owner of the house i.e., accused No.1, confessed that some accused persons, who belong to PFI, approached him and told that they would provide a financial assistance of Rs.6.00 lakhs in each phase-wise so as to construct a portion on the roof of his house to impart training to the cadres of PFI and also to use the premises for meetings of the organization, for which, he accepted the proposal of PFI and as per their suggestion, he constructed walls around the top of his building and built a conference hall and started imparting karate training to the PFI members of Telangana. Further, they also decided to fight against the speeches of BJP State President-Bandi Sanjay and Nizamabad Member of Parliament-Aravind and to achieve this goal, they started giving coaching/physical exercises to the youth persons in the name of Karate classes and briefing them and they also used to provoke the Hindu community people with their hatred speeches etc. The activities of accused No.1 and his associates, who are the members of the organization PFI and are mostly from the banned organization SIMI (Student Islamic Movement of India), are illegal and against the Constitution of India. On that, the Sub-Inspector of Police recorded the confessional statement of accused No.1 and seized four Flexies, white board, Bardan, sticks (15), Nonchaks (3), Note books (3), Paper bunches, Hand books (3), Podiam, 7 bus Tickets and 2 train tickets along with two cell phones of accused No.1 and registered Crime No.141 of 2022 on 04.07.2022 for the offences punishable under Sections 120B, 121A, 153A and 141 read with 34 IPC and Section 13 (1)(b) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (for short, ‘UA (P) Act’).

3.2. The Central Government has received the above said information regarding registration of F.I.R.No.141 of 2022 dated 04.07.2022 against accused No.1 and 26 persons and others, relating to some anti-national activities that are conducting in the house of accused No.1, which amounts to a conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India and since accused No.1 had admitted that in lieu of financial assistance of Rs.6 lakhs promised by some accused persons belonging to PFI constructed a portion on the roof of his house and allowed the premises to be used for imparting training to the cadres of PFI and started coaching/physical exercises for the youth in the name of Karate classes, added Sections 18A and 18B of UA (P) Act in the above said crime.

3.3. The Central Government is of the opinion that a Scheduled Offence under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, has been committed and having regard to the gravity of the offence and its repercussions on national security, i