Allahabad High Court Grants Bail To BJP Worker Accused Of Ferrying Unauthorized Persons From Bangladesh Into India

A Bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary allowed the appeal filed by Bikram Roy under Section 21(4) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008.

Roy had moved the HC challenging the orders of July 2024 and February 2025 passed by the Special Judge, NIA, Lucknow, rejecting his bail. 

The Court noted that several co-accused in the same case registered under Sections 120-B, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 370 [NIA Scheduled Offence] of the IPC and Section 14C of the Foreigners Act, 1946, have already been granted bail by coordinate Bench of the High Court.

Advocate Taha Chishti, holding brief of Advocate Arun Sinha, argued that while allowing the appeal and bail to co-accused Adil-ur-Rahman last month, the High Court had noted that multiple co-accused [Abu Saleh Mandal, Abdul Awal, Abdulla Gazi and Kafiluddin] had already been enlarged on bail in June 2025.

For context, a Division Bench in that case had observed that though the FIR alleged the accused were helping Rohingya to settle in India by taking illegal money from them and using such funds for Anti-India activities, the charge-sheets filed did not include any offences scheduled under the NIA Act and the accused had already spent around two years in custody.

The High Court, in that earlier order, had remarked that the offences under the Foreigners Act carry punishment up to five years and that there was no material to suggest that the accused, if released on bail, would adversely affect the trial.

Here it may be noted that only Roy and his co-accused Adil-ur-Rahman had been charged with NIA Scheduled offence [S. 370 IPC/Human Trafficking].

Roy's counsel further relied on the Supreme Court's last month order granting bail to co-accused Shekh Nazibul Haque, noting that he had been in custody for nearly two years and that the trial was likely to take reasonable time given that the prosecution proposed to examine over 100 witnesses.

It was also contended that Roy was merely a rickshaw puller alleged to have brought some unauthorized persons from the border of Bangladesh to West Bengal and he had no prior criminal history.

Considering the submissions of Roy's counsel, the Court granted him bail on the ground of parity with other accused.