The court allowed Singh’s application, but directed him to return to India and be present for the next date of the trial — September 24.

Singh, who was the first accused to have been granted bail, was earlier directed by the court to surrender his passport before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the case and not to travel abroad as one of the conditions of his bail.

Last month Singh had sought permission from the Panaji district and sessions court to travel to Indonesia for two weeks while also undertaking to return back to India by September 23, the day before the next date of hearing.

“In view of the itinerary given by accused No 2, I am of the opinion that permission can be granted to the accused No 2 to travel abroad,” sessions judge Irshad Aga, said.

Singh along with prime accused Sudhir Pal Sangvan are accused in the murder of the BJP leader on August 22. Phogat, died allegedly due to an overdose of an “obnoxious chemical” suspected to be MDMA that was allegedly mixed with a drink and forcibly given to her during an evening out at a nightclub at Anjuna in north Goa.

The case was initially registered as an “unnatural death” after she was declared dead at the St Anthony’s Hospital at Anjuna in Goa, but subsequently registered as murder based on a complaint filed by her brother Rinku Dhaka, who accused Sudhir Sangvan, the prime accused, who was also her personal assistant of being responsible for her death.

Following an uproar, the case was handed over to the CBI.

Earlier, on account of the trial being prolonged, the court had allowed both the accused to travel outside the state (Goa) and visit their native place in Haryana and relaxed the bail condition that stated they were not to leave the state.

Singh submitted that he and his wife intend to travel to Kuta from September 9 to September 13. From Kuta, they will travel to Canggu for four days till September 17 and thereafter, they will travel by road to Uluwatu and stay there till September 22. The accused submitted that they will return to India on September 23.

The visit was postponed after he could not get a waiver for the trip, they said.

If the visit had taken place, then it would have been the first ministerial visit from Kabul to India after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
The UN Security Council had slapped sanctions against all the leading Taliban leaders and they need to secure a waiver for foreign travels.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, when asked at his weekly media briefing about reports of Muttaqi’s proposed visit to India, did not give a direct reply.

“As you are aware, we have longstanding ties with the people of Afghanistan. India continues to support the aspirations and developmental needs of the Afghan people,” he said.”We continue to have engagements with Afghan authorities. If there is an update on this account, we will share it with you,” he said.External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had phone conversation with Muttaqi on May 15. It was the highest level of contact between New Delhi and Kabul since the Taliban came to power.

India has not yet recognised the Taliban set up and has been pitching for the formation of a truly inclusive government in Kabul.

New Delhi has also been insisting that Afghan soil must not be used for any terrorist activities against any country.

If the visit had gone ahead, Muttaqi would have been the first minister from the Taliban setup in Kabul to travel to India since the group seized power in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021. All Taliban leaders sanctioned by the UN Security Council have to secure a waiver for foreign travel.

Pakistan currently heads the 1988 sanctions committee of the UN Security Council that oversees the implementation of the travel ban, an assets freeze, and an arms embargo related to sanctioned Taliban leaders, and the people cited above said on condition of anonymity that Islamabad is believed to have been behind the move to deny Muttaqi a waiver.

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The 1988 sanctions committee includes all 15 members of the Security Council, and a waiver can be blocked if even one member objects to it. Muttaqi’s planned visit to Pakistan last month was called off after the US reportedly objected to a waiver.

When external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was asked at a weekly media briefing about reports of Muttaqi’s planned visit to India, he replied: “As you are aware, we have longstanding ties with the people of Afghanistan. India continues to support the aspirations and developmental needs of the Afghan people.

“We continue to have engagements with Afghan authorities. If there is an update on this account, we will share it with you.”

The people said a waiver for Muttaqi was sought from the 1988 sanctions committee but it wasn’t granted. The planned visit to India was being seen as a follow-up to a phone call between Muttaqi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar in May – the first such interaction between the two sides.

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The phone conversation also built on a meeting between Muttaqi and foreign secretary Vikram Misri in Dubai in January and came against the backdrop of tensions between India and Pakistan. The Taliban had also condemned the Pahalgam terror attack in April.

India has quietly built up its contacts with the Taliban leadership in recent years, mainly to protect regional interests at a time when China has sought to expand its footprint in Afghanistan, and Muttaqi and Jaishankar had spoken on the phone again on September 1 after New Delhi dispatched relief materials to help the victims of a devastating earthquake that struck the Afghan province of Kunar.

The people said that Muttaqi’s visit had only been called off, and it is expected to go ahead in the coming months once the issue of the waiver on the travel ban is addressed.