SRINAGAR: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has ordered the appointment of a special public prosecutor exclusively for a six-year-old UAPA case against Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and Pulwama legislator Waheed Para.
The J&K Home Department on Thursday appointed Abdul Rashid Dar, Additional Public Prosecutor in the NIA Court, Srinagar, as special public prosecutor in FIR No. 31/2020 registered by the Counter Intelligence Kashmir at Police Station CIK Srinagar.
The notification, issued by Principal Secretary Home Chandraker Bharti, said Dar had been appointed under Section 18(8) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, to conduct the case pending before the Special Judge (TADA/POTA), Srinagar. The order was issued “by order of the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor, J&K”.
The case invokes Sections 13, 17, 18, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, besides Sections 120-B, 121 and 121-A of the Indian Penal Code. The UAPA provisions invoked in the case relate, among other offences, to unlawful activities, raising funds for a terrorist organisation, conspiracy, facilitation and support of terrorist activities, while the IPC sections concern criminal conspiracy and waging war against the state.
Para, who was then PDP youth president, was booked by the Counter Intelligence Kashmir on allegations of supporting and providing funds to militants and sustaining networks linked to separatism and terrorism.
He was detained on November 25, 2020, a day after filing his nomination papers for the District Development Council elections from Pulwama. Para subsequently won the DDC election from Pulwama while he was in custody, but was not permitted to take oath even after being released on bail.
He spent more than a year and a half in jail before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court granted him bail in May 2022. The High Court had observed that the material placed by the prosecution was prima facie “insufficient or too sketchy to deny bail”.
The Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s decision in October 2022.
Para later contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Srinagar unsuccessfully. In the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections held in October 2024, however, he defeated the National Conference candidate from Pulwama, becoming a legislator in the first Assembly election in the Union Territory following the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
