SRINAGAR: A court in Jammu and Kashmir has granted bail to Abdul Aala Fazili, a PhD scholar who was arrested in 2022 for allegedly writing a “seditious” article in 2011. Fazili was detained by the State Investigation Agency (SIA) in Srinagar over an article, published in a now-closed Kashmir magazine. The magazine’s editor was also arrested in connection with the article.
The 3rd Additional Sessions Judge in Jammu, designated to hear cases under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), granted Fazili bail after noting that he had been in custody for nearly two years and nine months. The court observed that the evidence linking Fazili to the authorship of the article was weak and stated that if he were to be acquitted at the end of the trial, his period of incarceration would not be compensable by any means. Concluding that this was a case where the accused should be released at this stage of the trial, the court ordered Fazili’s release.
Sources confirmed that Fazili, who had been detained in Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu, has now been released and has returned home to the Kashmir Valley.
The SIA had claimed that Fazili’s article was “highly provocative, seditious, and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir,” accusing him of glorifying militancy and attempting to incite youth to violence. However, the court rejected these claims, stating that there was no incitement to violence or terrorism within the article. It also noted that the government had not taken any action against the article for over a decade, from its publication in 2011 until the registration of the FIR against Fazili in April 2022. The delay, the court observed, suggested that the article had not impacted law and order or militancy-related issues.
The court further highlighted that Fazili was a first-time offender with no other pending cases against him. It also noted that his co-accused, editor Fahad Shah, who allegedly published the article, had already been granted bail. Since both Fazili and Shah, the editor, played similar roles in the publication of the article, the court found no justification for denying Fazili bail when Shah had already been released.
Fazili was granted bail 15 months after Shah’s release.
The prosecution had invoked Section 43-D (5) of the UAPA to oppose Fazili’s bail, a provision that places restrictions on granting bail without hearing the prosecution. However, the court ruled that denying bail to Fazili would violate the fundamental rights granted under Article 21 of the Constitution. It pointed out that none of the ten witnesses examined by the prosecution testified that Fazili was the article’s author. The court also questioned why no action had been taken against the article for 11 years if it was indeed seditious.
Referring to the high court’s judgment on Shah’s case, which had stated that the article contained no call to arms, the court concluded that there was no legal basis to continue Fazili’s detention. Consequently, he was released and reunited with his family.
