Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today asked National Investigation Agency (NIA) to respond to a petition filed by alleged IS recruit Areeb Majeed seeking bail on technical grounds. A division bench of Justices R V More and V L Achliya asked NIA to respond to Majeed’s plea and posted it for hearing on November 23. Advocate Mubin Solkar, appearing for Majeed, told the HC that the petition was filed in June and since then NIA has not responded despite time given to it.
Majeed, a resident of Kalyan near Mumbai, along with three other youths — Shaheen Tanki, Fahad Shaikh and Aman Tandel, was part of a pilgrim group from India to Iraq in May 2014, when they went missing. Majeed and the three others were suspected to have joined the Syria-based terrorist group ISIS. Majeed, initially believed to have died, was later deported to India and subsequently arrested by NIA on November 28, 2014.
In May 2015, NIA filed a 8000-page charge sheet against Majeed under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code for waging a war against a country friendly to India. Majeed has sought his release on bail on technical grounds.
In his application, he has claimed that a sessions court, in violation of rules, extended the time for filing the charge sheet by the investigating agency, when it should have been done by a special NIA court. The sessions court had exceeded its jurisdiction and its order was illegal, the petition claimed. A special court had rejected his bail plea on similar grounds in May 2015 following which he approached the HC.
