Sasikumar murder: Order refusing police custody of accused set aside

A division bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Justice R Hemalatha, on observing that the NIA Act, 2008, was created to constitute an investigation agency at the national level to probe and prosecute offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India, said, “The appeal filed by the NIA against the order of the Special Court is maintainable both on facts and law and hence the order passed by the Special Judge for NIA Cases, Poonamallee, Chennai, dated March 16, 2018, is set aside by this Court for the reasons assigned in this Appeal.”

“The Special Judge is directed to restore criminal miscellanies petition seeking custody of the accused to his file and to pass necessary orders de novo, in a fair, just, unbiased and dispassionate manner, untrammelled and uninfluenced with any of the observations made by this Court in this appeal of course after providing adequate opportunities to the respective parties,” the bench added. 

Originally the Chief Investigating Officer of the NIA of Hyderabad had filed a petition before the Special Court seeking 10-day custody of Mubarak, as the evidences that were collected against him needed to be verified and corroborated further to establish the role of each accused in the entire conspiracy.