S. MURALIDHAR, J.

1. The Appellant, who was arrested by the National Investigating Agency (“NIA”) in FIR No.RC-06/2011/NIA/DLI on 24th October 2017, and who continues to remain in judicial custody as of date, challenges two orders passed by the Special Court, NIA, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi dated 5th February 2018 and 7th March 2018. The contention of the Appellant is that he is entitled to statutory bail under Section 167(2) Cr PC and that the Special Court erred in rejecting the said prayer by its order dated 7th March 2018.

Background

2. The aforementioned FIR has been registered under Sections 17, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (“UAPA”) read with Section 120B IPC. After his arrest, the Appellant was first produced before the Special Court (NIA) on 25th October 2017. By an order on that date, he was remanded to police custody for a period of six days. Inter alia, the reasons given by the Special Court were that his remand till 1st November 2017 was necessary so as to “enable the NIA to unearth the criminal conspiracy and link of accused Shahid Yousuf with proscribed terrorist organization Hizb-ul-Mujahiddin. (HuM)”

3. The matter then came up