‘Allegations don’t appear to be true’: Delhi court grants bail to Kashmiri photojournalist arrested under UAPA

“This court upon analysis of entire evidence and at least for the purpose of disposal of bail application, it can be observed that accusation against the accused does not appear to be cogent and true,” the court said.

Dar was arrested on October 22, 2021, by the NIA, which alleged that he was working to further the influence of terrorist organisations in Jammu & Kashmir.

He was booked under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 122 (collecting arms, etc., with intention of waging war against the Government), and 123 (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war), and several sections of the UAPA.

The NIA had alleged that the accused, “under the cover of a photojournalist”, was part of a “hybrid cadre meant to execute small scale attacks such as target killing of minorities, security forces, political leaders and other important persons to create unrest and spread terror”.

The court said that even if this was accepted, such allegations must be supported by direct evidence of any such activities.

“Mere assumptions or incomplete evidence to establish such facts may not be sufficient. This court would not discuss elaborately statements of the witnesses naming the accused/ applicant, except to note that such statements may not be conclusive,” the court said.

The court said that having certain objectionable material in the mobile phone of someone, when any prudent person would have deleted the same, “ipso facto (by the fact itself) would not be sufficient for connecting the accused with the allegations”.

The NIA had alleged that data extracted from Dar’s phone include images and videos of certain terrorist organisations. The court, however, said “there is no evidence at all showing sharing of any such photograph/ image of security forces, deployment etc. with any individual or organization at any point of time”.

Defence counsel Tara Narula told the court that the NIA’s case is “based on conjectures, surmises and devoid of any concrete evidence as against the accused”.

Narula argued that there is “no evidence showing that accused in any manner used to share images of force deployment, pickets under a cover of photo journalist”.

Special Public Prosecutor Gautam Narayan, who opposed Dar’s bail, argued that the NIA had evidence on record to show that “a coordinating group was constituted on the directions of United Jihad Council under the aegis of ISI Pakistan” and Dar “became part of such group and started working for proscribed terrorist organisation”.