S. Muralidhar, J.

This is an appeal under Section 21(1) read with Section 21(4) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 (‘NIA Act’) against an order dated 8th June 2018 passed by the learned District & Sessions Judge/Special Court (NIA), New Delhi (hereafter ‘the learned DS&J/trial Court’) rejecting the bail application dated 2nd January, 2018 of the Appellant, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali in NIA Case No.RC-10/2017/NIA/DLI.

Case against the Appellant

2. The aforementioned case was registered by the National Investigating Agency (‘NIA’), the Respondent herein, against 12 accused persons, including the Appellant, who has been arrayed as Accused No.10 (‘A-10’). The case has been registered under Section 120-B, 121, 121-A of the Indian Penal Code (‘IPC’) as well as Sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (‘UAPA’).

3. The charge sheet filed against the Appellant before the trial Court on 18th January, 2018 states that he received money from Hafeez Mohammad Syed (‘A-1’), from the Inter Services Intelligence (‘ISI’) of Pakistan, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi (‘PHC’) and also from ‘a source’ in Dubai and then remitted money to the leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (‘APHC’), a conglomerate of 26 political/social/ religious organizations whose agenda is to create an atmosphere conducive to the attainment of their goal in Jammu and Kashmir of secession from the Union of India as well as to separatists and stone-pelters.

4. According to the charge-sheet, the Appellant was acting as a conduit to transfer funds from terrorist organizations operating out of Pakistan and from other sources to India to fuel violence in J&K. As noted by the trial Court, in paragraph 3.1 of the impugned order, the case of the NIA is that the Appellant thus played a crucial role in the funding of terrorist activities.

The charge sheet

5. A copy of the charge-sheet filed by the NIA in the trial Court on 18th January 2018 is enclosed with the present memorandum of appeal as Annexure-C. The charge-sheet is in 64 pages. There are 12 accused. A-1 is Hafeez Mohammad Syed, described as the head of the banned terrorist organization ‘Lashkar-e-Toiba’ (‘LET’), A-2 is Mohammed Yusuf Shah @ Syed Salahuddin, stated to be the head of banned terrorist organization Hijbul Mujahiddin (‘HM’); A-3 is Aftab Ahmad Shah @ Aftab Hilali Shah @ Shahid-ul-Islam, described as the spokesman and media advisor of the APHC (Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Faction); A-4 is Altaf Ahmad Shah @ Fantoosh, described as the public relations officer and chief organizer as well as Secretary of the APHC; A-5 is Gulam Mohammad Khan, the chairman of National Front which is described as a political separatist outfit of J&K. A-6 is Farooq Ahmad Dar @ Bitta Karate, described as the Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (R); A-7 is Mohammad Akbar Khanday, described as spokesperson/media advisor of Hurriyat Conference (G); A-8 is Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, described as President of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, District Srinagar; A-9 is Bashir Ahmad Bhat @ Peer Saifullah, an Imam in a Masjid and a personal assistant of Syed Ali Shah Geelani as well as a secretary of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat; A-11 is Kamran Yusuf, a photo journalist; and A-12 is Javed Ahmad Bhatt who is a hawker of home appliances.

6. After filing of the charge-sheet, A-11 and A-12 have been granted regular bail. A-1 and A-2 have not been arrested. All the other accused, including the present Appellant (A-10) are in judicial custody.

7. As far as the Appellant is concerned, he was arrested on 17th August, 2017 and has been in judicial custody since then. Although in the charge-sheet in the column for ‘age’, his date of birth is indicated as 25th June 1952, the Court is informed that this is not his correct date of birth. His age shown as ‘75 years’, is also stated to be inaccurate, alt