Rudresh murder: HC rejects plea by accused to shift case out of NIA court

Afull bench of the Karnataka High Court headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi on Tuesday dismissed a criminal appeal filed by the accused in the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary R Rudresh seeking transfer of the case from the Special NIA Court to a regular Sessions Court. Irfan Pasha and the other accused in the murder had earlier challenged the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs on December 7, 2016 to hand over the investigation to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The trial court had earlier rejected their discharge application seeking discharge in offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The High Court and Supreme Court have upheld this order.

The accused then approached the trial court under Section 20 of the NIA Act seeking transfer of the case from the Special NIA Court to a regular Sessions court. In effect, they sought to be discharged from offences under UAPA as a regular Sessions court would try them for offences only under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The trial court rejected the application and an appeal was filed before the High Court. Since there were divergent opinion in two earlier cases on the same issue the matter was referred to a full bench.

Dismissing their appeal as non-maintainable, the full bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice B Veerappa and Justice P Krishna Bhat said the trial court order passed on the application under Section 20 of the NIA Act is purely an interlocutory order.

An interlocutory order is one which is passed anywhere in-between the commencement of trial and conclusion of trial but one that does not conclude the proceedings.

Under Section 21 of the NIA Act, an appeal in the High Court cannot be filed on an interlocutory order. The full bench therefore concluded that the appeal by the accused was not maintainable.

Rudresh, who was a city secretary of the RSS was hacked to death on October 16, 2016 on Kamaraj Road in Bengaluru.