New Delhi, May 16 (). The Delhi High Court on Tuesday fixed August 3 for hearing the plea of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali challenging the trial court’s order framing charges against him in a terror funding case.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested Watali in 2017 under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
A division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh granted time to the agency to file its reply in the matter and clubbed it with other related matters for hearing in August. Earlier, the same bench had issued notice to the probe agency.
The NIA had alleged that terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) had killed civilians in the valley with the support of Pakistan’s ISI. And carried out the violence by attacking the security forces.
In May 2022, a trial court framed charges against Watali and others in a case relating to alleged terrorism and separatist activities in 2017.
Charges were framed against LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, HM chief Syed Salahuddin and Kashmiri separatist leaders including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah and Masarat Alam under various sections of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Mohd Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Mohd Akbar Khande, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Watali, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Masarat Alam, Abdul Rashid Sheikh and Naval Kishore Kapoor are also named in the case. was accused.
JKLF leader Malik was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to the charges.
FZ/ANM
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