Eid Milan: HC Dismisses Bail Plea of Mirwaiz Aide

Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has dismissed a plea by Syed Rehman Shams, one of the twelve people arrested in connection with ‘Eid Milan’ last year, challenging dismissal of his bail application by NIA court here last year. In his plea Rehman claimed that he is a “religious scholar” and had, on invitation, attended the Eid Milan where other accused were “incidentally” present.

“The Trial Court did not go through the evidence and the material collected by the Investigation Agency to find out whether the prima-facie case against the appellant (Rehan) was made out or not,” he said while challenging order dated 25 September 2023 passed by Special Judge designated under NIA Act at Srinagar whereby his bail application was dismissed.   

“We are of the considered opinion that the order impugned passed by the Trial Court is well reasoned and does not suffer from any legal infirmity,” a division bench of Justices Sanjeev Kumar and Javed Iqbal Wani said.

“Indisputably, there are very serious allegations against the appellant (Rehman) and 11 others who had allegedly attended a meeting on 09.07.2023….”

 In the meeting, the court observed, apart from Rehman, many ex-members of “proscribed JKLF (Y), separatists and other people were also present”.

“The meeting was aimed at rekindling the activities of the banned unlawful JKLF(Y) Association and thereby waging war against the Government Of India and threatening the integrity, sovereignty and security of India,” the court said, adding, “On the basis of initial information received, the Police Station, Kothi Bagh, registered FIR no.23 of 2023 under Section 10 and 13 of UAP Act alongwith Section 121 (A) of IPC and the investigation was carried out by SDPO, Police Station, Kothi Bagh.”

During Investigation, the court observed, the statements of two accused— Mohd.Yasin Bhat and Mohd.Rafiq Pahloo, were recorded.

“From the investigation carried and statements of the relevant witnesses recorded, it came to fore that the accused including the appellant (Rehman) were in touch with their handlers across the border and as well as the organizations like Kashmir Global Council and conspiring to unite different pro-freedom groups such as Hurriyat, JKLF etc. The news of NIA seeking death penalty for Yaseen Malik did the job of reigniting their fire to conspire against the integrity and sovereignty of India.”

 In view of these disclosures made by the accused themselves coupled with other incriminating material collected during investigation, the court said, the Investigation Officer invoked Section 18 of the UAP Act as well.

“Before the Investigation officer could complete the investigation, and present the challan, an application came to be filed by the appellant herein seeking bail in the matter,” the court said, adding, “The Trial Court considered the entire material in light of the Police report and case diaries produced by Investigation Officer and came to the conclusion that a prima-facie commission of offence under Section 18 of UAP Act was made out against all accused including the petitioner and, therefore, rigors of Section 43(D) were attracted.”

The Trial court after going through the Police report and case diaries also concluded that there were reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against appellant was prima-facie true, the Division Bench said.

Consequently, the court rejected the bail plea.  Syed Rehman Shams has been secretary of late Mirwaz Muhammad Farooq and later to his son and current Mirwaiz Umaer Farooq.

Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now

MONTHLY	Rs 100
YEARLY	Rs 1000
LIFETIME	Rs 10000

CLICK FOR DETAILS