The Supreme Court Tuesday cancelled the bail of Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, a Kashmiri businessman, in a militancy funding case, saying NIA has collected ample evidence to show linkages between the Hurriyat leaders of Jammu and Kashmir and militant organisations as also their activities to wage war against India.
The bail was granted by the Delhi High Court to Wataliarrested by NIA for his alleged role in a militancy-funding case allegedlyinvolving Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
“Ample material has been collected to show the linkagesbetween the Hurriyat leaders of the Jammu and Kashmir and militants/militantorganisations and their continuous activities to wage war against government ofIndia,” said a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Ajay Rastogi.
The judgement assumes significance in the light of thegovernment’s recent crackdown on separatist outfits based in the state.
The apex court’s verdict came on an appeal filed by the NIAagainst the high court’s September 13, 2018 judgement granting bail to Watali.
Cancelling the relief granted to Watali, the bench said thehigh court “adopted an inappropriate approach” while considering his bail pleaby discarding all the material and evidence placed on record before it by theNational Investigation Agency (NIA).
The apex court saidthe high court ought to have taken into account the entire material on recordas it is and form an opinion on the basis of it, instead of weighing theevidence.
“The elaborate examination or dissection of the evidence isnot required to be done at this stage (of grant of bail). The court is merelyexpected to record a finding on the basis of broad probabilities regarding theinvolvement of the accused in the commission of the stated offence orotherwise. From the analysis of the impugned judgment (of the high court), itappears to us that the high court has ventured into an area of examining themerits and demerits of the evidence,” the bench said.
It said that after analysing documents and statements whichform part of the charge-sheet and other redacted statements on record, itdisagreed with the conclusion of the high court that there was no prima-faciematerial to show that Watali was involved in the conspiracy to raise funds formilitant activities.
“In our opinion, taking into account the totality of thereport made under section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code and theaccompanying documents and the evidence/material already presented to thecourt, including the redacted statements of the protected witnesses recordedunder section 164 of the Code, there are reasonable grounds to believe that theaccusations made against the respondent (Watali) are prima facie true,” theapex court said.
The bench said the high court “ought to have taken intoaccount the totality of the materials/evidences which depicted the involvementof the respondent in the commission of the stated offences and being a memberof a larger conspiracy, besides the offence under Section 17 for raising fundsfor militant activities”.
The apex court said it agreed with the June 8, 2018 decisionof the special NIA court which had declined to grant bail to Watali.
“Accordingly, this appeal succeeds. The impugned judgmentand order (of the high court) is set aside and, instead, the order passed bythe designated court (NIA court) rejecting the application for grant of bailmade by the respondent herein, is affirmed,” it said in its 89-page verdict.
NIA in its appeal had contended that the high court hadvirtually conducted a mini trial and even questioned the genuineness of thedocuments relied upon by the agency.
Watali was arrested on August 17 last year by the NIA.
Watali, Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudeenand nine others have been accused by the NIA of “conspiring to wage war againstthe government” and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir valley.
In its charge-sheet, the NIA has alleged that Watalireceived money from accused Syed, ISI of Pakistan, the Pakistan High Commissionhere and from a source in Dubai.
The money was then remitted to the leaders of the AllParties Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of 26 political/social/religiousorganisations whose agenda is to create an atmosphere conducive to theattainment of their goal in Jammu and Kashmir of secession from the Union ofIndia and to separatists and stone-pelters, the NIA alleged. Further, theseparatist leaders have been accused of taking a cut of the money.
Syed has been accused of using Watali’s services for passingon money to the separatists and some individuals, who were actively indulgingin stone-pelting in the valley.
The NIA has chargesheeted Pakistan-based militants Syed andSalahuddin, besides 10 others, with criminal conspiracy, sedition andprovisions of the UAPA.
Besides Syed, Salahuddin and Watali, the agency has namedseparatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Shah alias AltafFantoosh and Bashir Ahmad Bhat in the charge sheet.
Hurriyat Conference leaders Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq AhmadDar alias Bitta Karate, Muhammad Akbar Khanday and Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal havealso been chargesheeted by the agency in the funding case.
Barring, Syed and Salahuddin, the rest of the accused are currently in judicial custody. Two of the accused—freelance photojournalist Kamran Yusuf and Javed Ahmad Bhat—both accused of stone-pelting, were earlier granted bail by the court.