Jailed Kashmiri students struggle to arrange surety for release

Samaan Lateef

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Srinagar April 1

The family of Arshad Yousuf, one of the three Kashmiri students granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in a sedition case for allegedly celebrating the Pakistan cricket team’s win, is now struggling to put forth financial backing to their promise to appear in future court hearings.

The 21-year-old continues to be in jail even after the Allahabad High Court on March 30 granted bail to him and two other Kashmiri students, who were arrested after they allegedly put a Whatsapp status, celebrating Pakistan’s win over an Indian T20 cricket team.

“My nephew will be home and there can’t be a bigger joy for us,” Muhammad Younus Paul told The Tribune.

Paul says the family is now struggling to find six persons with each having Rs 1 lakh in their bank accounts to furnish surety bonds to secure his release.

“We have been told to arrange six sureties, so that our son doesn’t jump the bail. Until the final verdict of the case, the money will be withheld in the accounts of these six people. It’s really difficult to find six persons who can come to my nephew’s rescue,” he said.

Under a surety bond, a witness agrees to pay the fine if the defendant doesn’t appear before the court or breaks bond conditions.

“This is too harsh. Usually, court asks for one witness,” said Mir Urfi, a well-known human rights lawyer in Kashmir.

Arshad lost his father in a road accident when he was one-year-old. He is good at studies and gives hope to his mother and two siblings to bring them out of the cycle of abject poverty.

Along with Arshad, two other Kashmiri students, Inayat Altaf Sheikh and Showkat Ahmad Ganaie were also arrested for their Whatsapp posts. They have been in Agra jail since October 27.

While granting them bail, Justice Ajay Bhanot said: “The unity of India is not made of bamboo reeds which will bend to the passing winds of empty slogans.”

Justice Bhanot said that “students travelling freely to different parts of the country in the quest for knowledge is the true celebration of India’s diversity and a vivid manifestation of India’s unity.”

“It is the duty of the people of the hosting State to create enabling conditions for visiting scholars to learn and live the constitutional values of our nation,” the court observed.

The trio were studying at an Agra engineering college under the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme. Under the scholarship, the government selects colleges for the students after they apply and qualify for the scholarship. The scholarship was started by Dr Manmohan Singh-led Congress Government and thousands of Kashmiri students have got themselves enrolled in different colleges across the country over the years.

They were arrested after some students protested outside their college over their purported Whatsapp status. The college authorities rusticated them.

A Mathura-based lawyer Madhuvan Dutt is representing them after advocates in Agra refused to represent them.