SRINAGAR: A Delhi court sent separatist leaders Shabir Shah, Masrat Alam Bhat and Asiya Andrabi to judicial custody till July 12 in connection with a funding case. They were presented before Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil on expiry of their 10-day National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody. The NIA requested the court to send them to judicial custody.
Citing poor health, Andrabi requested the court to appear before it through video conference for the next hearing. The court asked the defence counsel to approach the concerned court after vacation. Shah, Bhat and Andrabi was arrested on June 4 in connection with the funding case, which the NIA registered in May 2017 after violence erupted in the Kashmir Valley.
So far, the agency has arrested several separatist leaders, including Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah. Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.
The NIA had on January 18, 2018 filed a charge sheet against 12 persons, including Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin in connection with the case. Later the agency filed supplementary charge sheets against the other accused, including Kashmiri businessman Watali and Dubai-based businessman Naval Kishore Kapoor.
Shabir Shah is undergoing judicial custody in Tihar Jail, after he was arrested on July 25, 2017 on charges of money laundering in a case dating back to 2005 when the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Hawala dealer Aslam Wani.