J&K HC junks bail plea of narco-terror accused

JAMMU: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of Syed Iftikhar Andrabi (53), who is facing trial in a high-profile narco-terror case for his alleged involvement in a cross-border syndicate engaged in drug trafficking and financing terror in the Union Territory.

NIA is investigating the case filed in 2020 under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC.

A division bench of Justices Sanjeev Kumar and Sanjay Parihar upheld the order of a special NIA court, Jammu, which had earlier rejected Andrabi’s bail petition.

HC observed that on the petitioner’s disclosure, 3.2kg of heroin and more than Rs 35 lakh cash were seized. Scrutiny of cellphone records indicated that Andrabi had been in touch with terror operatives across the border.

Andrabi’s counsel submitted that he was a political activist who had been falsely implicated after his release from preventive detention in 2019, and there was no direct evidence against him. Citing that he had been behind bars for around half a decade, the defence sought parity with co-accused persons who were granted bail.

Representing NIA, the prosecution — deputy solicitor general of India Vishal Sharma, along with special public prosecutor Chandan Kumar Singh — opposed the bail petition, arguing that Andrabi was found to have direct links with Pakistan-based handlers of terror outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen and was part of the narco-terror syndicate.

Despite acknowledging that Andrabi had spent almost five years incarcerated, HC held that the seriousness of the charges and evidence on record outweighed his request for parole. The trial was at an early stage, and it would be premature to conclude that the accusations against him were baseless, the bench noted.