New Delhi, Jan 28 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the bail plea of UAE-based businessman booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly funding the unrest in the Kashmir
valley.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the plea of Naval Kishore Kapoor and sought its response.
Senior advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that he has been in custody for over seven years, and the allegation of terror financing is also not corroborated.
He submitted that, as per the prosecution, Kapoor had given some money to Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali for furthering secessionist and terrorist activities in the valley but that money was used to settle loans of scheduled banks.
Kapoor has challenged the Delhi High Court's order issued last year dismissing his plea in the case.
The high court had said that the prosecution had prima facie established that the accused aided and assisted Watali in bringing foreign money into India for furthering secessionist and terrorist activities in the valley.
It had rejected the plea of Kapoor against a 2019 order of the trial court denying him bail.
After framing of charges, the high court had said that the rigours under UAPA mandating the refusal of bail if allegations against an accused were prima facie true were stricter.
The HC refused to accept Kapoor's reliance on his right to a speedy trial to get bail and said the trial was fast-tracked and taken up twice or thrice a week.
It had said that the credibility and admissibility of documents was not to be tested at the present stage and considering Kapoor lived in Dubai, there was a "likelihood of him fleeing from the clutches of law" aside from tampering with the evidence.
Pursuant to a case registered in 2017, the NIA claimed that its probe revealed that secessionists had entered into a criminal conspiracy to instigate the general public to resort to violence and create a surcharged atmosphere for the propagation of their agenda in the valley.
Kapoor was arrested in July 2018.
The accused persons, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, allegedly engineered arson and other unlawful activities, such as stone pelting, through the funding received from various organisations.
The secessionists, the NIA claimed, were primarily dependent on the hawala networks and conduits for bringing money from the offshore locations to India to fulfil and fuel anti-India activities in the Kashmir valley.
Kapoor was chargesheeted in January 2019 for conspiracy charges under the IPC and terror funding under the UAPA. PTI MNL AMJ
AMJ
