Bombay High Court upholds bail to alleged ISIS member Areeb Majeed

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday upheld a special courts order granting bail to 27yearold Areeb Majeed accused of having links with the Islamic State ISIS terror networkA division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale disposed of an appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency NIA challenging the special courts order granting bail to alleged ISIS member MajeedIn March last year Majeedwas granted bail by a special NIA court which noted the pace of the trial was slow and also on the ground that the prosecution had not succeeded in proving its prima facie case against the accusedThe HC said while it was upholding the lower courts order granting bail to Majeed on the ground of pendency of trial it was quashing the observations made by it lower court on merits of the caseThe order said while Majeeds case on slow trial appears to be on a firm footing the special NIA courts observation with regard to no prima facie case established at this stage was flawedThe HC noted that the right to fair and speedy trial is a constitutional right and if after a long and lengthy trial the accused is found to be not guilty then the number of years spent by him or her as undertrial can never be given back to themIt said in cases where a person is booked for serious and heinous offences courts are required to perform a balancing act so as to ensure that a golden mean is reached between the rights of the individual and those of the society at largeThe HC bench in its order said Majeed has been charged under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA and is accused of having returned to India with an intention to carry out terrorist activities hereHowever no death was caused by the alleged plans hatched by the respondent Majeed since he was arrested the moment he landed in India the court saidMajeed has been in custody for more than six years now the high court said adding the process of examining around 50 witnesses has taken more than five years and admittedly there are 107 more witnesses to be examinedTherefore there is no likelihood of the trial being completed within a reasonable time in the near future the court saidThe bench while quashing and setting aside the lower courts observations on no prima facie case being established said it was strange the NIA court held that at this stage the prosecution had not succeeded to prove prima facie case on the basis of examination 49 witnessesThe findings rendered in favour of the respondent Majeed in the impugned judgment lower court order appear to be flawed the HC said in its orderWe are of the opinion that considering evidence of 49 witnesses already examined when 107 witnesses remained to be examined was an irrelevant consideration taken into account by the NIA court the bench saidIt noted that Majeed was an educated person and also comes from an educated family hence his release on bail with stringent conditions imposed shall not be harmful to the society at large and it would not adversely affect the trialThe bench directed Majeed to furnish Rs 1 lakh as surety and also directed him to stay with his family at Kalyan in neighbouring Thane districtMajeed has to appear before the police in Kalyan twice every day for the first two months and once a day for the next two monthsAdditional Solicitor General Anil Singh argued that there are over 100 witnesses yet to be examined in the trial against Majeed and hence the NIA court ought not to have jumped to the conclusion that prima facie case was not established by the prosecutionThe NIAs case was that Majeed along with three others had travelled to Syria ostensibly for pilgrimage but never visited pilgrimage sites and instead joined the ISIS with an intention to indulge in jihadi activitiesThe probing agency had also claimed that Majeed returned to India with an intention of carrying out terrorist activities including an attack on the headquarters of the Mumbai policeMajeed was arrested in November 2014 under provisions of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code for allegedly waging a war against the nation and other chargesHe was granted bail in March last year by a special NIA courtThe NIA later approached the HC challenging the lower courts order The HC had then in an interim order stayed operation of the bail granted pending hearing of the NIAs appealHence Majeed continued to remain in jailWhile opposing the NIAs appeal Majeed argued that he had gone to Syria only to help people and denied all charges levelled against himHe had told the HC that it was his father who contacted the NIA and other government agencies to bring him back to IndiaHe had also argued that the trial in the case was progressing slowly and there was no possibility of it being completed in the near futureThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom 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