Alleged ISIS operative Areeb Majeed’s lawyer Mubin Solkar, while arguing for the grant of bail to his client in a special court on Tuesday said there are reasonable grounds to believe that prima facie his client was not guilty of offences punishable under the provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Mr Solkar further alleged that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had fabricated evidence to falsely implicate Majeed and also kept him in illegal custody.
The prosecution is expected to argue on Majeed’s bail plea next Thursday. Majeed had allegedly travelled with three other Kalyan youth to Iraq in May 2014 on the pretext of a pilgrimage but vanished during the journey to join the ISIS. Six months later, and after allegedly taking part in active combat there as alleged by the prosecution, Majeed came back to India in November the same year. He was nabbed in Mumbai on November 28, 2014 by Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad. Majeed was then handed over to the NIA that booked him under the UAPA sections.
Mr Solkar argued before a special judge Ninaji Khandu More that Majeed was shown arrested in November 2014 while the Union government later issued a notification to declare ISIS a banned organisation on February 16, 2015. According to Solkar, there is no retrospective effect in criminal law and hence “even if it is believed that Majeed was a member of ISIS before his arrest, then he cannot be booked under the UAPA.”
Solkar argued that the sanction to prosecute Majeed under UAPA is also faulty because the law has said that a review committee should do assessment of the report of investigating agency to decide if UAPA is applicable or not but there was no review committee at all.
