PFI case: Court in UP's Mathura re-issues B-warrant for 5th accused lodged in Kerala jail

On the request of the Uttar Pradesh STF, the court of additional district and sessions judge here re-issued a B-warrant on Saturday for Rauf Sheriff, the fifth accused in a case involving the Popular Front of India (PFI), asking him to appear before it on February 1, a government lawyer said.

"On the request of the STF on January 1, the B-warrant was issued by District and Sessions Judge Anil Kumar Pandey for the appearance of the PFI's student wing leader Rauf Sheriff in the court on January 15, but he did not turn up," District Government Counsel Shiv Ram Singh said.

Neither Sheriff, who is lodged in a jail in Kerala's Ernakulam, nor any representative of the Special Task Force (STF) appeared in the court on January 15, he added. On a written request from the STF, the judge ordered the re-issuance of the B-warrant for Sheriff on Saturday. If a person is in jail for more than one offence, a B-warrant is issued for him and the accused is sent to court by the jail authorities and not by police.

Sheriff, a central leader of the Campus Front of India (CFI), is charged with funding PFI activists Atiqur Rahman, Aalam Masood and journalist Siddique Kappan, who were arrested on October 5 last year for serious offences like sedition, when they were on their way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh to report on the alleged gangrape and subsequent death of a Dalit woman.

Meanwhile, ED Deputy Director Vinay Baliyan submitted a written request in the court seeking a re-interrogation of Rahman, Masood and Kappan as their statements were found to be contradictory, the district government counsel said, adding that the judge accepted the request.