Mehbooba Mufti's aide Waheed Parra denied bail after charged with terror offences

Srinagar: A special court of National Investigation Agency (NIA) has rejected for the second time in five months a bail application of Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, a close aide of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.

The court cited ‘prima facie’ terror charges against 33-year-old Parra appearing to be ‘true at this stage’ as the reason for denying him bail.

It had earlier framed terror charges against Parra, the head of the youth wing of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), based on a police charge sheet which claimed he was an asset for Pakistan-based terror groups and that his 13-year journey as a journalist and politician from 2007 was a "saga of subterfuge, deceit and double-dealing".

The NIA had in a supplementary chargesheet filed against him in the court in March this year in a case of alleged nexus between a tainted J&K police officer Davinder Singh and separatist Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants claimed, “Investigation revealed that chargesheeted accused Waheed-ur-Rahman Para was part of the conspiracy for raising and transferring of funds to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants for procurement of ‘terrorist’ hardware and was also a crucial player in sustaining political-separatist-militant nexus in J&K”.

The special judge while rejecting Para's bail application said the contention raised by the defence counsel could not be considered and the good grounds did not exist at this stage that would warrant the release of the accused on bail in view of the given facts and circumstances governing the matter in hand. He also said, “At present, I am satisfied in view of the material placed on the record that the alleged offences levelled against the accused/applicant herein appears to be prima facie true at this stage.”

The court, however, in its 24-page order rejected the contention of the prosecution that a fresh application for his bail should not have been entertained by the court as no fresh development has taken place since the last rejection in February.

Parra’s counsel Shariq Reyaz had urged for cancellation of the FIR under which he had been arrested and contended that the same case was being probed by the NIA, therefore rendering the probe by police as “void ab-initio and non-est” (having no legal validity from the beginning) in law. The counsel said the material relief by the police against Parra was the sum and substance of the NIA charge sheet filed in a Jammu court from where he has already been granted bail.

But the special judge rejected the contention of the Parra’s counsel for quashing of the FIR and said “to the understanding of this court quashing of FIR is out of the jurisdiction of this court and the issue raised can only be properly addressed after the trial of the case and it is premature stage to assess and decide” whether the two cases — one probed by the NIA and the second by (J&K) police — are the same or not. The judge said that the points raised by the defence counsel can only be addressed during the course of the trial.

However, the special court at Jammu in its eight-page order made available on Monday stated that "prima facie there is sufficient evidence against the accused for alleged commission of offences under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code." The special NIA judge charged him with being a member of a terror group, raising funds for them as well as aiding an outfit.

Parra was also charged under sections related to waging war against the country, spreading disaffection against the government and criminal conspiracy. End it