Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 25: The NIA Court today rejected bail to 10 leaders of J&K Liberation Front and Hurriyat Conference who were arrested and booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge designated under NIA Act Srinagar presided over by Sandeep Gandotra today in a common judgment rejected the bail plea of 10 activists of banned J&K Liberation Front and Hurriyat Conference stating that going by the nature of offences in the FIR, the accused persons are not entitled to bail at this stage.
“The embargo contained under Section 43(D) proviso 5 is attracted in the present case and the accused persons/applicants herein don’t deserve the latitude of bail at this stage. Further, if the accused persons are enlarged on bail, public interests and interests of UT shall be put to stake. The applications are accordingly dismissed”, the court concluded.
The accused persons-Firdous Ahmad Shah of Abiguzar, Jahangir Ahmad Bhat of Batangoo Sopore, Saheel alias Suhail Ahmad Mir of Umer-Abad Peerbagh, Khursheed Ahmad Bhat of Iqbal Colony Rawalpora, Syed Rehman Shams alias Shams-u-din Rehmani of Goti Uttar Dinajpur West Bengal presently Lalbazar, Sajad Hussain Gul of Panthachowk Srinagar, Mohammad Rafiq Pahloo alias Salim Nanaji of Natipora, Gh. Hassan Parray alias Firdousi of Lawaypora Srinagar, Mohammed Yaseen Bhat of Naseembagh Hazratbal Srinagar and Shabir Ahmad Dar of Badam Bagh Sopore have been booked under section 10, 13, 18 UAP Act and the court said, it is hit by the embargo contained under section 43 (D) of UAP Act.
“Serious allegations have been made against all the accused persons in the statements of protected witnesses, who had also gone and attended the said meeting. Objectionable and incriminating materials have been seized from some accused persons which include the letters written by Yaseen Malik seeking freedom of J&K and some photographs depicting “Kashmir Banega Pakistan”, the Court mentioned.
Some accused persons, court said, have talked to militants across the border in Pakistan on the evening prior to the meeting and on the morning of the meeting on 09/07/2023 and the report of CCTV and DVR footage of Habib restaurant is yet to be obtained from the FSL; the report of some electronic gadgets and laptops are yet to be obtained from FSL; the reports of mobile phones of some accused persons/applicants have been obtained from FSL and they run into thousands of pages which are being analyzed.
The report pertaining to the accused-Mohd Yaseen Bhat is of 55,000 pages and submission made by the APP that it will take sufficient time to investigate all the aspects of the case, merits consideration. Further, since all the accused persons are being investigated for the offence of conspiracies U/s 121-A IPC and U/s 18 of UAP Act, which of course would be known only after proper investigation, and the liabilities for conspiracies are joint therefore anyone of them cannot claim at this stage that he is not responsible for the acts of other accused person.
Court has been informed that on 09.07.2023 police had taken 43 persons to police station from Habib Restaurant and the police has let of 33 persons arrested and there are only 10 accused persons. The IO has admitted that 43 persons present in the meeting at Habib Restaurant were taken to police station on 09.07.2023 out of which 32 persons and one juvenile were allowed to go after furnishing bonds, because nothing incriminating was found regarding those persons.
On the basis of preliminary questioning past history and statements of prosecution witnesses so recorded, prima facie involvement of these alleged accused persons had come to fore. During investigation, search of these accused persons were carried out and during their personal search, 10 mobile phones have been recovered and seized. Accordingly, search cum seizure memo of the mobile phones were prepared and were properly resealed and remarked by the Executive Magistrate. Consequently upon their involvement, they have been formally arrested in case FIR No.23/2023 u/s 10, 13 UAPA, 121-A IPC in P/S Kothibagh on 10.07.2023.
Court in view of above facts and evidences recorded that the section 10, 13, 18 UA (P) Act and 121-A has been established against the accused persons and the investigation of the case is going on to ascertain further fruitful evidences and prompt clues to corroborate the commission of crime.
“Therefore, it is prayed to the court that at this stage the bail of accused persons may not be granted as there is every apprehension that the accused persons may hamper / temper the evidences collected during the investigation”, the court concluded.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
