The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected bail to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah. He has been in jail over terror funding charges by the NIA since 2017.
The High Court has dismissed his appeal. Earlier, in 2023, the trial court dismissed his bail plea. The division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur had rejected the appeal.
The detailed order will be uploaded later in the day by the High Court. The court said there were 24 cases against him. In 18 of them, he has been charge-sheeted while three cases have been dismissed. Three cases are pending investigation.
Senior advocate Collin Gonsalves appeared for the petitioner Shah. He moved to the High Court in 2023. The trial court dismissed his earlier bail plea on July 7, 2023. Also, a notice was issued to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the same year.
The counsel for the petitioner has submitted that it is a fresh bail application. He has been in custody since 2017, and the charge-sheet has been filed against him.
The fresh plea stated that the applicant has been incarcerated for over four years in the present FIR and also intermittently for 35 years in other prisons in Kashmir, as also other parts of the country. He was also placed under house arrest for a substantial period, without a single conviction or charge against him.
The NIA on May 30, 2017, registered a case against 12 accused persons for alleged conspiracy to raise and collect funds to disrupt peace in Jammu and Kashmir through stone pelting, causing damage to public property and thereby conspiring to wage a war against the government of India.
Shah was arrested on June 4, 2019 and on October 4, 2019, a second supplementary charge-sheet was filed, and the appellant was included as an accused along with others.
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The allegations against the appellant included him playing a key role in building a separatist/militant movement in Jammu and Kashmir, inciting and instigating masses to shout slogans for the secession of Jammu and Kashmir, paying tribute to the families of the slain militants, receiving money through hawala transactions, and raising funds through LOC trade, which were used to fuel subversive and militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Investigation has also revealed that the accused Shabir Shah was in touch with Pak/POK-based militant leadership, including Syed Salahuddin, Hafiz Mohd. Saeed and Iftikar Haidar Rana, the trial court had noted in the order of July 7, 2023.
It is further alleged that the accused Shabir Shah was duly supported by Pakistani agencies through the Hurriyat, and representatives such as Shafi Shair and Mehmood Sagar, who are based in Pakistan.
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