New Delhi: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Srinagar rejected the bail application of PDP leader Waheed Parra on Tuesday, saying if a balance is to be struck between the personal liberty of a person accused of “heinous” crimes and the security of the state, it is the latter that prevails.
The Peoples Democratic Party leader was arrested by the NIA on November 25, 2020, days after he filed his nomination to contest the District Development Council (DDC) polls.
Rejecting his plea, the court said the charges against him were “grave, serious and heinous in nature” and that a preliminary analysis of evidence collected so far show he was “aiding militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the garb of a politician”.
The 19-page order also rejected Parra’s argument that he was a budding politician, saying “a perusal of the CD [case diary] file transpired that in the garb of a politician, the petitioner had been playing an active role in funding the militants and had also been demanding arms and ammunition against payment by misusing his position”.
His bank accounts show huge transactions, the source of which could not yet be ascertained, and the matter is “still being investigated and the facts would come out with the passage of time and conclusion of the investigation”.
Parra was detained by the Criminal Investigation Department (Kashmir) and brought from Jammu on transit remand, after his release by an NIA court on January 9. The NIA had arrested Parra on November 25 in a separate case related to terrorism.
‘Political rivalry’
Parra’s counsel Mushtaq Ahmad Dar and Arzaan Ahmad, argued that their client had managed to win the DDC elections while he was in custody of the NIA, which alleged that he had paid Rs 10 lakh to Naveed Babu, a terrorist of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen, for “managing” the 2019 parliamentary elections in south Kashmir.
The judge, while rejecting this contention said that Parra having won “does not deserve any consideration because it means that the petitioner is a highly influential person and can tamper with evidence and no witness would depose against him”.
According to Bar & Bench, the judge said the allegation against the accused “are so grave, serious and heinous in nature that if a balance is to be struck vis-a-vis the personal liberty of petitioner and the security of the state/UT, it is the interest and the security of the state/UT which shall prevail.”
The counsel for Parra, while arguing in the court, said political rivalry has become the order of the day as the ruling classes or the ruling parties are time and again blamed for framing their opponents who “may be the greatest patriots or nationalists” but in order to force them to join the parties which are ruling, no stones are left unturned in “order to force and coerce”.
The counsel said Parra contesting and winning the DDC elections “has annoyed and anguished the other political rivals and parties of the petitioner and till now he has not even been allowed to take oath.”
The lawyers said that the petitioner “has been made scapegoat because of the political rivalry and that he has been a very great and good motivator for nationalism and the integrity of the country” and that the allegation of being an unscrupulous political leader having supported terrorists and secessionist is devoid of any evidence, merit and basis.
Representative image. Photo: PTI
His lawyers claimed that there has been no evidence collected against the petitioner in this case and the facts and evidence is being fudged and padded to falsely implicate him in the case “so as to please the political masters”.
The prosecution presented before the court the investigation carried out so far by the police in the case registered after “reliable and confidential sources” said that some political functionaries are misusing their position and have established clandestine connections and relations with different Pakistan-supported terrorist and secessionist organisations operating in Jammu and Kashmir for a number of reasons, including the immediate motive for furthering their political clout.
The NIA also said that during the preliminary analysis of Parra’s phone, it has emerged that he has “contacts across the border suspected to be his associates and handlers in Pakistan as well as with anti-national elements which include secessionists, terrorists and overground workers (OGWs) in the UK and other parts of the world”. Parra has also been in touch with a number of militants, the agency said.
Among other allegations, the NIA says Parra visited foreign countries to have “one-on-one meetings with agents from enemy countries” and travelled to Pakistan to meet Syed Salahuddin, the self-styled chief of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen terror group.
(With PTI inputs)
