Terror funding case: SC refuses to grant interim bail to J&K separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant interim bail to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah in a terror funding case even as it issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on his petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s June 12 order denying him bail in the case.

“No interim bail,” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta told senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, representing Shah, after he sought interim bail for the accused on the ground that he was “very sick”.

The Bench posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.

The high court had refused bail to Shah, noting that the possibility of him carrying out similar unlawful activities and influencing witnesses couldn’t be ruled out.

In 2017, the NIA registered a case against 12 persons on allegations of conspiracy for raising and collecting funds for causing disruption by way of pelting stones, damaging public property and conspiring to wage war against the Government of India.

Shah — chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDPF) – an unlawful organisation — was arrested by the NIA on June 4, 2019. He allegedly played a “substantial role” in facilitating a separatist or militant movement in Jammu and Kashmir by inciting and instigating the general public to sloganeering in support of the secession of J-K; paying tribute to the family of slain terrorists or militants by eulogising them as “martyrs”; receiving money through hawala transactions and raising funds through LoC trade, which were allegedly used to fuel subversive and militant activities in J-K.

The Constitution provided for the right to freedom of speech and expression, but it also placed reasonable restrictions such as public order, decency, morality or incitement to an offence, the HC had said.

“This right cannot be misused under the garb of carrying out rallies wherein, a person uses inflammatory speeches or instigates the public to commit unlawful activities, detrimental to the interest and integrity of the country,” it had said, dismissing Shah’s appeal against the trial court’s July 7, 2023, order refusing him bail.

Citing the serious nature of charges, the high court had also rejected Shah’s alternate prayer for “house arrest”.

The high court had examined the 24 pending cases against Shah, indicating his involvement in a number of criminal cases of similar nature and conspiring for the secession of J-K from the Union of India.