Delhi court extends judicial custody of ten Kashmiri separatists including Zahoor Watali

NewsBharati    18-Oct-2017
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New Delhi, October 18: A Delhi court has extended the judicial custody of ten Kashmiri separatists including Zahoor Watali till November 14th of this year. Notably, these separatists were arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in terror funding and money laundering case.

 

The court has extended judicial custody of ten Kashmiri separatists including businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Javed Ahmad Bhat of Kulgam and photojournalist Kamran Yousuf of Pulwama for 30 days. While other seven were Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Meanwhile, the court has also allowed production through video conferencing of 10 separatists arrested as part of the agency’s probe into the funding of separatists in Kashmir. The order came on the basis of an application citing intelligence reports that there was “high propensity” of the accused “escaping from custody” during transportation from jail to court and back.

BACKGROUND:

The arrest of Srinagar based businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali comes following the searches conducted by the central probe agency at multiple locations in Jammu and Kashmir belonging to his relatives and employees. Watali's residence in Srinagar was first searched by NIA on June 3 during which it had recovered several financial documents related to terror funding apart from land deals handled by him.

During the searches, the NIA had unearthed highly incriminating material pertaining to receipt of funds by Watali from foreign sources and its further distribution to the terrorists and separatists in Kashmir valley for anti-India activities. He is being questioned by the NIA.

The raids were conducted after the questioning of Geelani's sons. The NIA sought details about the financial transactions from Naeem and Naseem. The court also gave the judicial custody of Naeem and Naseem to NIA in money laundering case. Several other Hurriyat leaders who have been questioned in connection with this case have given details about the funding. All evidence points towards a major role played allegedly by Geelani, the investigations have found.

The action of NIA comes after the probe agency raided the house and office of Devinder Singh Behl in money laundering case and arrested him from his residence. Devinder Singh Behl is a businessman and close aide of Syed Ali Shah Geelani allegedly involved in the money laundering case and funded anti-national elements to create unrest in Kashmir.

On the other side, the arrest of Devinder Singh Behl Comes after the central agency arrested seven Kashmiri separatist leaders including Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Shah and moderate Hurriyat chairman’s close aide Shahid-ul-Islam in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in Kashmir. All are in the remand of NIA for custodial interrogation in the case. According to the sources, more arrest is possible in the terror funding and money laundering case.

However, the arrest comes a month after NIA raided eight and fourteen locations of Delhi, Haryana and Kashmir respectively in connection with the terror funding case. The case came into the limelight after a sting operation surfaced in which he purportedly confessed by Nayeem Khan to receiving funds from Pakistan to create unrest in the Kashmir Valley. After this, Geelani suspended Khan from the basic membership of Hurriyat conference in May.

Hafeez Saeed, a Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ud Dawa, the front of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, has been named in the FIR as an accused, in addition to organizations such as the Hurriyat Conference, Hizbul Mujaheedin and Dukhtaran-e-Milat. The NIA in the same context had also searched the premises of others like Shahid-ul-Islam, an aide of Farooq's, who heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference. The NIA had recovered some account books, Rs 2 crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including the LeT and the Hizbul Mujahideen, during its searches.

In 2002, the Income Tax department had raided the establishments of some separatist leaders, including Geelani, and seized cash and documents. Interestingly, this the first time since the rise of militancy in Kashmir in the early 1990s, NIA had carried out raids in connection with the funding of separatists.