Srinagar: The Supreme Court on Thursday (March 12) granted bail to senior Hurriyat leader Shabir Ahmad Shah who has been booked in a terror funding case by the National Investigations Agency (NIA).
“Bail granted. A detailed order giving reasons will be passed later,” a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta observed while granting bail to Shah who is presently languishing in New Delhi’s Tihar jail.
Sehar Shabir, Shah’s daughter, said that she was relieved by the court’s verdict. “I have always affirmed my faith in the judiciary and today my conviction stands vindicated. The bail is the first step towards getting justice for my father who has been wrongly imprisoned,” she told The Wire.
The apex court was hearing an appeal challenging an order of the Delhi high court which denied bail to Shah on June 12 last year while observing that the possibility of him carrying out similar unlawful activities and influencing witnesses couldn’t be ruled out.
Shah’s counsel had argued before the Delhi high court that the separatist leader had never been convicted in any case but the bail was denied. Later, the apex court also refused to grant interim bail to Shah on September 4 last year.
Shah, who is the president of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP), was arrested on June 4, 2019 and booked by the NIA for allegedly promoting and funding terrorist and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The JKDFP chief was named in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the agency in the 2017 case.
Several other Hurriyat leaders including the J&K Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and J&K National Front chief Nayeem Khan, among others have also been arrested in the case and they too are languishing in Tihar jail.
Arguing for Shah, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves and advocate Satya Mitra told the apex court that the Hurriyat leader was “very sick” and he has remained behind bars for nearly 38 years in his political career.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
