Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to a man who allegedly helped settle illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya people in various parts of the country.

A bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Justice PK Srivastava also directed that the man be arrested for interrogation, expressing serious displeasure and anguish regarding the “callous and careless approach of the investigating agency” for not taking appropriate steps to apprehend him.

The court passed the verdict, dismissing an appeal of the appellant, Abdul Ghaffar, who challenged a special NIA court order that had also rejected his anticipatory bail plea in November 2025.

The government counsel has argued in the High Court that the man was allegedly getting money from outside the country to build houses and huts for illegal immigrants.

The court noted, in its order dated January 9, that the probe has been ongoing since October 2023.

The alleged offences jeopardise the “security, safety, peace and harmony” of the country, which should be brought to the notice of the chief secretary, additional chief secretary(Home), principal secretary, secretary to the chief minister and the director general of police, for information and appropriate action, it said.

Refusing to interfere in the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court’s order, the bench asked the appellant to provide all his material to the investigating agency within a week and further permitted the NIA to arrest him, in case his arrest was required by the probe officers.

Ghaffar and nine other accused persons were implicated in the FIR registered at the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) police station in Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, on October 11, 2023.

He sought anticipatory bail, pleading that for a considerable amount of time, the probe agency had not arrested him as there was “no concrete evidence” against him.

Opposing the appeal, government counsel SN Tilhari submitted before the bench that the probe team had collected ample material against the appellant based on surveillance.

Tilhari said they are accused of setting up a racket of taking money by illegal means and hawala transactions from other countries in different bank accounts to extend help to “intruders and unauthorised persons”, mainly Bangladeshi persons and Rohingyas who are involved in “anti-national activities”.

The money is then utilised to construct some houses, jhuggi jhoparis, etc. for them at certain places in the country, he said.