HC denies bail to Naval Kishore Kapoor in terror funding case
The Delhi High Court has denied bail to Naval Kishore Kapoor, an accused in a terror funding case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
A division Bench comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur dismissed Kapoor’s appeal challenging a trial court order that had earlier rejected his bail application on August 19, 2019.
“The is a case of a conspiracy, therefore, it is the circumstances that unfold the evidence, from which it has emerged that there is a larger conspiracy entered between various terrorist organisations with the assistance from funding raised by them through illegal means for furthering terrorist and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir,” the Court stated in its December 12 order.
Kapoor was accused of channeling funds to co-accused Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, who allegedly further remitted the funds to terrorist organisations to finance activities such as stone pelting and arson in Kashmir. “Prima facie, terror funding money was sent from Pakistan and its agencies, with Watali serving as a key conduit in facilitating its flow,” the bench observed.
The court also noted that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the allegations against Kapoor were prima facie true based on the evidence collected during the investigation. “The documents collected by the investigating agency, on broad probabilities, are sufficient to implicate the appellant in the present case,” it said.
Rejecting Kapoor’s plea that his arrest was improper since he was initially a witness and was later named as an accused in the supplementary charge sheet, the court added that its observations were solely for deciding the appeal and should not be considered an expression on the merits of the case.
The NIA had alleged that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the chief of Jammat-ud-Dawah, along with separatist leaders and militants, had conspired to raise funds through illegal channels, including hawala, to finance terrorism in Kashmir.
Kapoor was arrested in July 2018, and charges were framed against him in 2022. Co-accused Yasin Malik had pleaded guilty in the matter and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court.
