The Supreme Court on Friday, October 30, dismissed the petition filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging the bail granted by the Delhi High Court to Kashmiri activist Khurram Parvez in a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) over alleged terror funding. A bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice P.B. Varale refused to interfere with the High Court's order, considering the long incarceration of the accused.

Source: LiveLaw

Additional Solicitor General Raja Thakare appeared for the NIA. Senior Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, appearing for Parvez, submitted that he has a prosthetic leg and has undergone custody for nearly five years. He further told the bench that the framing of charges in the case has been deferred since the NIA, on August 19, sought time to file a supplementary chargesheet.

Bail rested on long custody and Article 21

A Delhi High Court bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja had granted bail to Parvez, observing that the prolonged incarceration of nearly four-and-a-half years, the slow progress of the trial and his right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution warranted his release. The High Court's judgment in his appeal set aside the trial court's December 2024 order that had refused him bail in the case registered as RC-30/2021/NIA/DLI.

Source: Delhi High Court judgment, Khuram Parvez v. NIA

Parvez was arrested in this case on November 22, 2021, from Srinagar. The NIA has alleged that a network linked to the banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) recruited overground workers, gathered intelligence on security installations and facilitated terror funding. These are allegations by the agency; the case is yet to come to trial and the charges, as the defence pointed out in Friday's hearing, have not yet been framed.

Parvez had separately secured bail in July this year in a second UAPA case from 2020, when a Delhi court granted bail to him and journalist Irfan Mehraj in the alleged NGO terror-funding case. That order was reported at the time to have paved the way for his release once bail stood in the 2021 case as well.

With the Supreme Court now refusing to disturb the High Court's bail in the 2021 case, the NIA's challenge to that bail order comes to an end. The trial in the case remains pending.