New Delhi : A court of India’s notorious National Investigation Agency (NIA) has absolved illegally detained Dukhtaran-e-Millat chairperson, Syeda Aasiya Andrabi, photojournalist Kamran Yousuf and vendor Javed Ahmad Butt of fake funding charges filed against them by the dreaded agency.
The NIA’s Delhi court, in its March 16 order, absolved photojournalist Kamran Yusuf, vendor Javed Ahmad Butt and Syeda Aasiya Andrabi, who were booked by the NIA in a 2017 fake case of funding citing that the evidence against them was not sufficient.
17 Kashmiri leaders including Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Merajudin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah, Ayaz Akbar, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Shahidul Islam, Engineer Abdur Rasheed and Zahoor Ahmad Watali were implicated in the fake case. The court, however, ordered framing of charges against the remaining 14 Kashmiri leaders detained under various draconian laws like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The NIA said that photojournalist Kamran Yusuf, vendor Javed Ahmad Butt were involved in several stone-pelting incidents and had links with the over-ground workers of mujahideen. However, Special Judge (NIA) Parveen Singh in his March 16 order said there was no sufficient evidence to raise a suspicion that the two were part of a larger conspiracy. “There is no evidence before the court that reflects that they were part of a conspiracy to propagate a secessionist agenda,” the court said. Both the persons were out on bail since 2018.
The NIA had filed a case in 2017 and then filed the charge-sheet against all the 17 Kashmiri leaders, claiming that they were conspiring to ‘instigate general public to come on streets for Azaadi”.
