Supreme Court Issues Notice On Bail Plea Of Accused Naval Kishore Kapoor In Terror Funding Case

The Supreme Court today issued notice on a plea filed by Naval Kishore Kapoor in a terror funding case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Reportedly, he is linked to Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali and has already spent 7.5 years in custody.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria passed the order after hearing Senior Advocate Shadan Farasat (for Kapoor), who assailed the Delhi High Court order which denied Kapoor bail.

Farasat submitted that out of 240 witnesses, only 28 have been examined. The petitioner has already undergone 7.5 years and examination of other witnesses will likely take 4-5 years. Insofar as it has been alleged that the petitioner gave money to co-accused Watali, the senior counsel pointed out that Section 21 was dropped at the stage of charge. What remains is a charge under Section 17 UAPA read with Section 120B IPC. In this regard, he added, "I have shown that the entire amount of Rs.5.5 crores has been used by Mr Watali to pay back loans of scheduled banks. So where is the question of any of this being used for terror activity?"

To recap, as per the NIA, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the Chief of the Jammat-ud-Dawah and other secessionists and separatists leaders, including various members of the Hurriyat Conference, had been acting in connivance with the active militants of various proscribed terrorist organizations for raising, receiving, and collecting funds through various illegal channels, including hawala.

Allegedly, their purpose was to fund separatists and terrorist activities in the Kashmir valley and through the funds so collected, they had entered into a larger criminal conspiracy for causing the disruption of peace in the Kashmir valley by way of pelting stones at the Security Forces, systematic burning of schools, damaging public properties, and waging war against India.

Kapoor was arrested in July 2018. Charges against him were framed by the trial court in 2022. Co-accused Yasin Malik pled guilty in the matter and was sentenced by the trial court to life imprisonment.

In the impugned order denying Kapoor bail, the High Court noted that he has been accused of channeling funds to co-accused Watali, who would further remit the funds to be utilized by the terrorist organizations for “wreaking havoc by way of stone pelting, burning of schools, etc in the Kashmir valley.”

It said that prima facie, money for terror funding was sent from and by Pakistan and its agencies and Watali was one of the main conduits for flow of the terror funding, and played an active part in facilitating it.

“The present is a case of a conspiracy, therefore, it is the circumstances that unfold the evidence, from which it has emerged that there is a larger conspiracy entered between various terrorist organizations with the assistance from funding raised by them through illegal means for furthering terrorist and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir."

The Court also rejected Kapoor's plea that his arrest was improper and that he was initially a witness in the investigation and was subsequently arrayed as an accused in the supplementary chargesheet.

Aggrieved, Kapoor approached the Supreme Court.

Case Title: NAVAL KISHORE KAPOOR Versus NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY, Diary No. 62821-2025