A chargesheet against seven Kashmiri separatists and a businessman in a case of alleged terror funding in Kashmir will be filed by the NIA on Thursday, the day their judicial custody ends, an official said on Wednesday.
According to a National Investigation Agency source, the agency will file the chargesheet against the arrested separatist leaders and a businessman under various sections of money laundering and “waging war against country” as the judicial custody ends on January 18.
A Delhi court on January 12 extended the judicial custody of the eight accused till January 18.
The eight have been charged with receiving funds from Pakistan to “sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting” in Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmir was rocked by massive protests after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with government forces on July 8, 2016.
An official of the agency said that they will be charged under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAP Act of 1967) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 121, which is “waging, or attempting to wage war against the state” and Section 120 B, which is “entering into criminal conspiracy.”
According to a senior official of the agency, the main chargesheet prepared by the NIA contains close to 50 pages and the annexure attached to the chargesheet, may run into nearly 5,000 pages.
On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them—Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah—on charges of “criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.”
Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani, while Shahid-ul-Islam is a close aide of another Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.
Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, accused of acting as a conduit for channelling funds for separatists and terror activities in Kashmir, was arrested on August 17 last year. (IANS)