Jammu and Kashmir separatist leader Shabbir Ahmed Shah was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday (April 17) evening in a 30-year-old case. He got bail in two different cases in the month of March itself. The NIA’s Srinagar branch arrested Shah on charges related to the 1996 attack on police and produced him in Delhi’s Patiala House Court. After the court granted three-day transit remand, the NIA took him to Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, the Supreme Court and Patiala House Court had granted him bail in different cases. He got bail after spending almost 39 years in custody and detention.
On March 12, the Supreme Court granted him bail in the terrorist funding case. Earlier, Delhi High Court had rejected his bail plea, against which he had appealed in the Supreme Court. In his petition he had stated that he is 74 years old and has been in jail for more than six years. Also, there are around 400 witnesses in this case, out of which statements of only 15 have been recorded so far.
Shah is accused of being involved in a conspiracy to separate Jammu and Kashmir from India and raising terrorist funding. The NIA has filed several chargesheets in this case, in which Shah’s name was later added. During the hearing, the Supreme Court had asked many questions to the NIA, especially regarding the evidence based on old speeches of the 1990s. The court had asked how much trust could be placed on such old evidence and what was the concrete reason for keeping him in custody for more than six years.
Meanwhile, Patiala House Court had also granted bail to Shah in the money laundering case on March 28. In 2019, the NIA arrested him in the terror funding case, after which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a money laundering case against him. The court of Special NIA Judge Prashant Sharma had granted him bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a bond of like amount.
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