Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against PDP leader Waheed Parra in a case related to the alleged nexus between politicians and terror groups in the union territory, officials said here.
The chargesheet was filed under various sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act before a designated court, they said.
Parra was arrested by the Criminal Investigation (Kashmir) of Jammu and Kashmir”s CID department early this year in a separate terror related case soon after he was granted bail by the NIA court in Jammu in a case of terror funding. Highlighting various loopholes in the NIA case against Para, the judge said neither the original nor the supplementary chargesheet has a “reference of the present applicant”, and that he is even referred to as “suspected accused in the said case”. It also questioned the very basis of Para’s arrest, on the “so-called disclosure statement” of militant Syed Naveed Mushtaq Shah alias Naveed Baba, noting that its “legal value” was “seriously hit by Section 25 of the Evidence Act”, which says that such confessional statement can only be recorded under Section 164 CrPC by a Magistrate, and said that not even one protected witness had named him.
The Special Judge had ordered Para’s release on furnishing a surety and personal bail bond of Rs 1 lakh each, with the direction that he not leave Jammu and Kashmir without written permission during his bail period and surrender his passport. Para was also specifically told not to approach any prosecution witness.
Considered instrumental in revival of the PDP in South Kashmir, Para was arrested by the NIA on November 25, three days after he had filed nomination papers from Pulwama for the maiden District Development Council elections in J&K. He had won while in custody.
However, soon after the bail order, the CID Kashmir wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested him in another terror case. The Jammu and Kashmir Police case against him along with Mukhtyar Ahmed Waza alias Munir Ahmed Sofi, a People’s League leader and member of the Hurriyat Conference is of alleged links between politicians and terrorists. It says the FIR was registered by the Counter-Insurgency Wing of the J&K Police in Srinagar following “information from reliable and confidential sources that some political functionaries are misusing their membership, position, or affiliation with political parties and as a part of criminal conspiracy, they have established clandestine connections and relations with different Pakistani terrorists and secessionist organisations operating in J&K’’.
Claiming to have recovered “incriminating” material against the accused during searches of their houses in J&K, the FIR adds, “Taking advantage of the cover available to them because of their membership or position or affiliation with political parties, these unscrupulous political parties’ functionaries have variously supported the terrorists and secessionists… by way of paying money, organizing select physical attacks through terrorist elements, facilitating their movements, transporting their fighting hardware and importantly saving them from range of legal and coercive actions of Law Enforcement Agencies…”