SC grants NIA three weeks to file response on Shabir Shah’s bail plea

New Delhi, Jan 13 The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) three weeks’ time to file its response on the bail plea of Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah in a terror-funding case.

The matter will now be heard on February 10.

Seeking additional time, the NIA told the apex court that new facts had emerged in the case and that it would file a detailed reply to Shah’s rejoinder affidavit. The court accepted the request.

Shabir Shah, 74, has sought bail citing his advanced age and prolonged incarceration of over six-and-a-half years.

Representing Shah, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves argued that the case is based on a single speech that has been placed before the court multiple times. He contended that Shah has already spent a substantial period in custody and faces the risk of repeated arrests through successive FIRs.

Opposing the plea, NIA counsel Siddharth Luthra submitted that Shah was arrested in the present case in June 2019 while he was already in custody in an Enforcement Directorate case. He alleged that Shah and others were involved in funding street protests aimed at paralysing the administration.

Luthra further told the court that witnesses have stated Shah recommended students for medical seats in Pakistan, where seats are reserved for Kashmiri students. He informed the Bench that 34 witnesses have been examined so far out of a total of 248, with charges framed on March 16, 2022.

According to the NIA, four to five witnesses are being examined each month.

Countering the arguments, Gonsalves said Shah had quit the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) in 1996 and formed his own independent group. He argued that the allegations primarily pertain to the APHC and not Shah. He also questioned the pace of the trial, stating that even after increasing the number of witnesses to 290, only about 30 witnesses have been examined over eight years, warranting Shah’s release on bail.

Shah has challenged the Delhi High Court’s June 12 order last year denying him bail. The NIA had earlier informed the Supreme Court that the recording of evidence in the case is currently underway.

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