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SC declines to interfere with Bombay HC order granting bail to alleged ISIS member

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New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court order granting bail to a 28-year-old man, arrested for allegedly being a member of the banned terror outfit – Islamic State (ISIS).

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant said that it is good judgement and the High Court has given enough reasons to arrive at its finding.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said his only concern was that the high court referred to the Shreya Singhal judgement of 2015 of the apex court in its order and referred to fundamental right.

He said that advocacy of banned organisation ISIS is itself an offence.

The bench said that even without Shreya Singhal reference, which was unnecessary, the judgement could be sustained.

It ordered that observations made by the high court were in the facts and circumstances of the case.

In the Shreya Singhal judgement, the top court had scrapped Section 66A of the Information Technology Act under which a person posting offensive messages could be imprisoned for up to three years as well as fined.

Terming liberty of thought and expression “cardinal”, the top court had on March 24, 2015, scrapped the provision saying that “the public’s right to know is directly affected by Section 66A of the Information Technology Act” .

On August 13 last year, the Bombay High Court had granted bail to Iqbal Ahmed Kabir Ahmed who challenged an order of a special court refusing bail to him.

The high court had noted that while there existed a bar on grant of bail under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), under which Ahmed had been charged, his continued incarceration without any chance of the trial in the case concluding soon would be a breach of his constitutional right to life and liberty.

The court directed Ahmed to appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) twice a week for the first month and then once a week for the next two months. Ahmed was arrested on August 7, 2016 and booked under the stringent provisions of the UAPA for being part of a terror outfit and under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The prosecution’s case was that Ahmed was part of the ISIS’s ‘Parbhani module’, who were purportedly planning to carry out a terror attack on the office of the Superintendent of Police in Parbhani.

The NIA, the prosecuting agency in the case, had told the court that as per witness statements, Ahmed and his friends used to gather in the evenings to discuss “atrocities against Islam” across the world, and about “avenging” such atrocities.

The high court had, however, taken note of submissions made by Ahmed’s counsel that mere discussions did not constitute the commission of an offence.

“First and foremost, the tenor of the statements of the witnesses, even if taken at par, would indicate that the accused persons used to have discussions over the threats to Islam – real, perceived or imaginary,” the high court had said.

At this juncture, there is no prima facie material to indicate that the accused instigated the commission of offence or insurgency, or that he advocated violent reactions, it said.

The high court had quashed and set aside the special court’s order that had denied bail to Ahmed.

“The denial of bail, in such circumstances would render the procedure not only unreasonable but unconscionable as well,” the high court had observed. PTI MNL SA

This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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