SC upholds HC bail to alleged terrorist

The apex court noted that the accused has been in prison for more than five years and the trial court had put stringent conditions while releasing him on bail on March 17, 2020

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to re-arrest Areeb Ejaz Majeed, an alleged member of banned terrorist outfit Islamic State (IS). He was nabbed in November 2014 by the Mumbai ATS and then the case was handed over to the NIA.

A Bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and AS Bopanna declined to interfere in the Bombay High Court's decision on February 23 to uphold the bail granted to him by the trial court, despite strong pleadings by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju on behalf of the NIA why he is moving freely may trigger terrorist activities in the country.

Raju claimed Majeed had returned to Mumbai to carry out blasts at the police headquarters and recruit Indians and non-residents to join the terrorist organisation and narrated how he went to Iraq in May 2014 on a pilgrimage visa but slipped out to Syria to join IS. He argued the bail is not permissible to Majeed since his case is under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The Bench, however, declined to entertain the central agency's petition, noting that the accused has been in prison for more than five years and the trial court had put stringent conditions while releasing him on bail on March 17, 2020.

It did not accept Raju's plea that Majid's decent behaviour can't be a ground for bail by the trial court since he had come back to India with a motive to carry out a "lone wolf attack" kind of operations.