Mumbai: Areeb Majeed, the only person to be brought back to the country after having joined Islamic State, moved for bail for the third time before the city civil and session court of special National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge V.V. Patil on Tuesday.
Majeed’s primary contention for seeking bail is on the basis that the court has dropped Section 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) from the charges against him in February this year. The section is in relation to punishment for being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation.
The court had dropped Section 20 of UAPA from the charges, stating that prior to February 2016, when the case was registered against Majeed, Islamic State had not been declared a terrorist organisation.
The NIA, which was supposed to submit a list of witnesses and documents to the court, did not produce it because the investigating officer was not present, following which Majeed’s lawyers Farhana Shah and Arif Siddiqui moved the court for bail.
Majeed’s bail plea states that there are no eyewitnesses in the case, the NIA’s case solely rests on circumstantial evidence, and that the chargesheet filed against him is riddled with contradictions.
It further states that the trial, which would see as many 147 witnesses, including U.S. and other foreign nationals, would take a long time to conclude, and it would not be fair to keep Majeed behind bars for such long period.
The bail application will be heard on May 29.
Majeed’s second bail application had read, “The allegations that he sneaked into India to carry out jihadi activities are false. And that his return from Turkey was arranged and facilitated by high-ranking diplomatic and Central government officials in coordination with officials of the National Investigation Agency.”
After the special NIA court rejected his bail plea, Majeed had filed a bail application in the Bombay High Court on June 2015, stating that the agency has illegally detained him and thus he was liable for bail. The Bombay High Court, however, rejected the bail application on the grounds that it did not have any merit.
Majeed had left for Baghdad from Kalyan on May 23, 2014, as part of a group of 22 pilgrims to visit religious shrines in Iraq. However, he and three engineering students, Fahad Shaikh, Saheem Tanki and Aman Tandel, separated from the group and allegedly joined IS. He landed in Mumbai on November 28, 2014, following which he was immediately detained by the security agencies, and later arrested.
He is currently lodged at the Arthur Road prison and has been charged under Sections 16 and 18 of the UAPA for conspiring to commit a terrorist act and being a member of a banned foreign terror outfit. He has also been booked under Section 125 of Indian Penal Code for waging war against the nation.
