SRINAGAR: The Delhi High Court on Friday granted bail to Syed Ahmad Shakeel, son of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, while rejecting a similar plea by his brother Shahid Yusuf in a terror funding case, reports appearing in media said..
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur said the prosecution’s case against Yusuf pointed to his alleged role in a larger conspiracy involving the use of hawala channels to route funds for terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The court noted that Yusuf was accused of receiving money from co-accused Aijaz Ahmad Bhat, alias Aijaz Maqbool Bhat, with knowledge that the funds would be used to further terrorist activities.
Observing that Yusuf had previously travelled on a passport with a falsified parental identity, which was later destroyed, the bench said the possibility of him being a flight risk could not be ruled out. The court also found a “real likelihood” of his tampering with evidence and influencing witnesses.
In contrast, the court granted bail to Shakeel, who has been in custody for over six years since his arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on August 30, 2018, from his Srinagar residence. The judges said his prolonged incarceration, coupled with the absence of certainty about the trial’s conclusion, justified his release.
The bench observed that the primary allegation against Shakeel related to the receipt of funds and not their use for any terrorist activity. At the time of his arrest, Shakeel was employed as a senior lab technician in the Department of Microbiology at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura.
“Keeping in view the role assigned to the appellant, continued detention of the appellant at this stage would not serve the ends of justice,” the order said. Shakeel was released on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties of the same amount.
According to the NIA, the case, registered in 2011, concerns the transfer of funds through hawala channels by terrorists based in Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir, in conspiracy with operatives in India, to finance secessionist and terrorist activities.
Yusuf was arrested in October 2017 and chargesheeted in 2018 for allegedly receiving funds from Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operatives abroad. Shakeel was accused of receiving money via Western Union from the absconding accused Aijaz Ahmad Bhat, and his name surfaced in connection with raising and collecting funds from cadres in Saudi Arabia.
Salahuddin, designated as a “global terrorist” by the United States, is the self-styled commander of the Pakistan-based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The outfit is banned in Jamm and Kashmir.
