Court Refuses To Discharge Accused In ‘Khalistan’ Case Who Claimed To Be Former RAW Agent

The special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court has refused to discharge one of the accused in a “criminal conspiracy to revive Sikh militancy for ultimate aim of formation of a separate state of Khalistan”.

In his plea, Moin Khan claimed that he worked for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the foreign intelligence agency of India, and was arrested after he accused his handlers of not “disclosing terror funds recovered in a raid on a hawala network”.

Khan levels serious allegations against RAW officials

Khan moved the plea last year claiming that he was innocent. In September 2018 RAW officials had seized Rs50 crore sent through hawala channels for terror attacks in India, he said, adding that there were no official records of the recovery.

Khan said that when he raised this issue with his superiors, he was asked to keep quiet.

Khan further claimed that he was on a secret mission on December 6, 2018, when the same officers who were involved in the recovery of the terror fund came and arrested him.

The witnesses in the case registered before the court at Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab had all turned hostile, he added.

Call data records reveal conspiracy to carve out separate Khalistan: NIA

NIA prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves opposed the plea, contending that the accused, in pursuance of the conspiracy to carve out a separate Khalistan, had procured pistol and ammunition in October 2018. Call data records had revealed the conspiracy, he said.

The agency had earlier claimed that the main accused in the case, Gurujeet Nijjar, Harpal Singh and Khan, were active on social media platform and had “hatched a criminal conspiracy to revive Sikh militancy for ultimate aim of formation of a separate state of Khalistan”.

They had posted videos and images containing praises of militants Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Jagtar Singh Hawara, (convicted for the assassination of Beant Singh, former chief minister of Punjab), and Operation Blue Star of 1984, it said.

Allegations against Khan prima facie true: court

Nijjar and Singh were convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, besides relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Maharashtra Police Act, last year and sentenced to five years in jail.

The court said this showed that the allegations against Khan were prima facie true. The plea was devoid of merit and needed to be rejected, it said.