UAPA: Delhi High Court Denies Bail To Accused Naval Kishore Kapoor, Says Terror Funding Wreaked Havoc In Kashmir

The Delhi High Court yesterday denied bail to accused Naval Kishore Kapoor in a terror funding case registered by National Investigation Agency (NIA) under UAPA.

A division bench comprising Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur dismissed Kapoor's appeal challenging a trial court order denying him bail on August 19, 2019.

“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 said.

The Bench noted that Kapoor has been accused of channelling funds to co accused Zahoor Ahmad Shah 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 of terror funding was sent from and by Pakistan and its agencies and that Watali was one of the main conduits for flow of the terror funding, and had played an active part in facilitating it.

“…there are reasonable grounds to believe the allegations against the Appellant to be prima facie true in reference to the documents collected by the investigating agency during the investigation, which on broad probabilities, are sufficient to implicate the Appellant in the present case,” the Court said.

The Bench 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 by NIA in the supplementary Chargesheet.

“In view of the foregoing discussion, the Appeal is, accordingly, dismissed. However, we make it clear that the observations made hereinabove are only for the purpose of deciding this Appeal and would not be treated as an expression on the merits of the case before the learned ASJ,” the Court said.

The NIA alleged that 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.

It was also alleged that 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 had pled guilty in the matter and was sentenced by the trial court to life imprisonment.

Title: NAVAL KISHORE KAPOOR v. NIA

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