Two months after he was detained in a five year old case, Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan has been granted bail by a court in Srinagar. Sultan has been behind bars since 2018 – first in a Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case, and then in a case filed under the Public Safety Act. The court, however, set strict bail conditions, barring him from using encrypted messaging apps or proxy networks, and to buy a new mobile phone or a SIM card only after permission from the court. "There can be no dispute at all that so far as the investigation into allegations of commission of offence under the UAPA, 1967 is concerned, that there is compelling state interest in tackling such serious crimes. However, mere use of this statutory provision would not ipso-facto warrant rejection of applications of bail, ignoring the other binding requirements," Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Gandotra said in his bail order. "In the humble opinion of this court, the occurrence took place more than five years ago and sufficient time of approximately two and a half months (72 days) has been given to the investigating agency for the custodial interrogation of the accused applicant. Further detention of the accused person/applicant in custody shall not serve any purpose,” it said. A journalist with a Srinagar-based English magazine, Kashmir Narrator, Sultan was working as an assistant editor when he was arrested by the police in September 2018 under UAPA after his story on slain militant commander Burhan Wani was published in the magazine. His colleagues and family claimed he was arrested for his journalistic work. The police, in their chargesheet, however accused Sultan of “hatching a criminal conspiracy” and “harbouring militants”. The police chargesheet was filed in a case of a gunfight in which a policeman was killed by militants in Srinagar's Batamaloo neighbourhood. The militants had managed to escape after the gunfight. In April 2022, the J&K High Court granted bail to Sultan in the UAPA case on the grounds that “investigative agencies failed to establish his links with any militant group”. However, the police booked Sultan again under the PSA, which allows the government to detain any person without trial for a period of up to two years. On December 7 last year, the J&K High Court quashed Sultan's detention under PSA, calling it “illegal and unsustainable”. When he was ultimately released from Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar district jail on February 28 this year, he was re-arrested the next day. This time, he was picked up in connection with a 2019 case over an agitation by inmates inside the Srinagar Central Jail. The inmates had protested against shifting of some prisoners outside the state, and allegedly set some furniture on fire.
