CBI special court on Friday has directed former Amnesty International India chair Aakar Patel not to leave India without the Court’s permission.

Special CBI court judge Santosh Snehi Mann stayed the order of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACCM) Pawan Kumar’s order directing the CBI director to send a written apology to Patel.

"Stay of operation of the impugned order vis vis directions to the CBI director for compliance with respect to observations made in the later part of the impugned order, especially with respect to a written apology. This is also with respect to the condition that the respondent will not leave the country without the permission of this court," the special court-ordered.

CBI has challenged the Magistrate order, and filed a review application before the CBI judge. The ACCM court has set aside a LookOut Circular (LOC) issued by the CBI against Patel and also urged the CBI director to send a written apology to Patel with the aim of restoring public confidence in the central agency.

Aakar Patel has filed a plea before the Magistrate after he was stopped from boarding a flight to the United States on Wednesday. He was told about a LOC being issued against him by the CBI.

The case: This was in relation to a case regarding evasion of Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRA Rules) through "commercial" methods after Amnesty UK remitted ₹10 crores and subsequently ₹26 crores to its India entities without the approval of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

After Magistrate's order, Patel had booked tickets to the US once again but he was again stopped at the airport on Thursday night by Immigration authorities since CBI had not withdrawn the LOC.