Bombay HC upholds bail to IS member Areeb Majeed

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday upheld a special court’s order granting bail to 27-year-old Areeb Majeed, accused of having links with the Islamic State (IS) terror network. A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale disposed of an appeal filed by the NIA, challenging the special court’s order granting bail to the alleged IS member.

In March last year, Majeedwas granted bail by a special NIA court which noted the pace of the trial was slow and also on the ground that the prosecution had not succeeded in proving its prima facie case against the accused. The HC said while it was upholding the lower court’s order granting bail to Majeed on the ground of pendency of trial, it was quashing the observations made by it (lower court) on merits of the case. \ The order said while Majeed’s case on slow trial appears to be on a “firm footing”, the special NIA courts observation with regard to no prima facie case established at this stage was “flawed”. The HC noted that the right to fair and speedy trial is a constitutional right and if after a long and lengthy trial the accused is found to be not guilty, then the number of years spent by him or her as undertrial can never be given back to them. It said in cases where a person is booked for serious offences, courts are required to perform a balancing act, so as to ensure that a “golden mean” is reached between the rights of the individual and those of the society at large.

The bench said Majeed has been charged under UAPA and is accused of having returned to India with an intention to carry out terrorist activities here. “However, no death was caused by the alleged plans hatched by the respondent (Majeed), since he was arrested the moment he landed in India,” the court said.