SC stays bail granted to Kashmir bizman

NEWDELHI: ARGUING AGAINST BAIL GRANTED TO WATALI BY THE DELHI HC, NIA SAID HIS RELEASE WOULD HAMPER THE ONGOING INVESTIGATION INTO THE TERRORFUNDING CASE

The Supreme Court on Friday put on hold Delhi high court’s day-old order granting bail to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in an alleged terror-funding case involving Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, stopped Watali’s release after the NIA rushed with its appeal before the court.

Arguing for the NIA, attorney general KK Venugopal said it was a serious case requiring the top court’s intervention, and Watali’s release would hamper the ongoing investigation in the terror-funding case against him. He was arrested in August last year.

In its appeal, the NIA said it had recovered a document from Watali’s house in Kashmir in which his accountant had maintained details of the money he received for disbursement to various Hurriyat leaders. Signed by Watali, the note records payments received from the LeT chief, Pakistan High Commission in India and Hizbul Mujahideen chief, Mohammad Yusuf Shah.

Appearing for Watali, a lawyer from Kashmir argued that his client was a 75-year-old businessman and a reading of the police report does not warrant any case cognizable by the NIA. He dared the central agency to bring on record any document to undermine the soundness of the HC judgment. After a brief hearing, the bench posted the matter to September 26.

On Thursday, a bench of the Delhi HC, headed by Justice S Muralidhar, had allowed Watali’s bail plea after observing that nothing had been shown to suggest that his trade was “geared towards funding of terrorist activities.”

Watali was asked to surrender his passport before the trial court and told not to travel abroad without the court’s prior permission. “The documents (seized in the case) do not enable this court to prima facie conclude, as the trial court has in its order stated, that appellant (Watali) received money from A-1 (LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed) or PHC (Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi) or others and was passing on the said funds to the Hurriyat leaders for funding terrorist activities and stone pelting,” the high court had said.