SRINAGAR: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez in a terror funding case registered by the National Investigation Agency under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
According to a report by Live Law, a division bench comprising Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja allowed Parvez’s appeal challenging a trial court order dated December 17, 2024, which had denied him bail.
“We have granted bail, subject to various conditions,” the bench said while pronouncing the verdict. A detailed order is awaited.
Parvez was arrested from Srinagar on November 22, 2021, and was later remanded to judicial custody on February 25, 2022, after a series of police custody remands. As of December 19, 2024, when the appeal was filed, he had spent more than three years in custody.
The NIA alleged that a network linked to the banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba had recruited Over Ground Workers (OGWs), collected intelligence on security installations and facilitated terror funding. Although Parvez was not named in the original FIR, he was arrested during the course of the investigation.
According to the charge sheet, the allegations against Parvez included recruiting OGWs for LeT, collecting information regarding the movement and structure of the Army, maintaining links with Pakistan-based militant organisations and instigating protests following the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016.
Parvez, in his appeal, argued that the prosecution’s case was unsupported by evidence and that he was a “factual stranger” to the larger conspiracy alleged by the NIA.
The defence contended that there was no digital evidence showing his contact with members of any proscribed organisation and that no call detail records had been collected regarding the alleged meeting between him and co-accused Muneer Ahmad Kataria.
It was further argued that there was no evidence showing Parvez passed sensitive military information to any militant operative and that no allegation connected him to any terror funding money trail.
Senior Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir appeared for Parvez along with advocates Swati Khanna, Raminder Kaur, Md. Imran Ahmad, Shahzad Khan and Kartik Venu. The NIA was represented by Special Public Prosecutor Rahul Tyagi along with advocates Priya Rai, Shubham Goyal, Jatin Khatri and Amit Rohila.
