The court emphasized the importance of establishing reasonable grounds to believe the accusations against the accused are prima facie true when considering bail applications for serious offenses. It also highlighted the need to assess the seriousness of the accused's medical condition and whether it can be managed in custody.

JUDGMENT :

SANJAY DHAR, J.

1. By the medium of this judgment, instant appeal filed by the appellant against the order dated 28th September 2019 passed by the learned Special Judge Designated under NIA Act, Srinagar whereby the bail application of the appellant Syed Saiqa, stands rejected, is proposed to be disposed of. During the pendency of the appeal, the appellant filed another application for grant of bail and pursuant to our directions dated 15.05.2020 the said application has been taken up for hearing along with the main appeal.

2. Before coming to the appeal and the bail application of the appellant, let us give the brief background of the facts leading to filing of the instant appeal and the bail application.

3. As per the charge-sheet that stands already filed before the learned trial Court on 12.10.2019, on 28.10.2018 Police Station, Pulwama received information from a reliable source that bullet ridden body of Sh. Imtiyaz Ahmad Mir, Sub-Inspector, Jammu and Kashmir Police was found at Village Wahibugh near Rohmi Nalla. On the basis of this report, FIR bearing No. 288/2018 was registered and the investigation of the case was started. During the course of investigation, the Police conducted the inspection of the site wherefrom the dead body was recovered, the dead body was seized, postmortem of the deceased was conducted, the dead body was handed over to legal heirs of the deceased, the vehicle of the deceased was recovered and seized and the statements of witnesses conversant with the facts of the case, were recorded under Section 161 of Cr.P.C. One Ansarul Haq S/o Bashir Ahmad Raina R/o Tikin, Batpora, who had been arrested by Special Cell Delhi, was called for questioning and upon his interrogation it was discovered that said Sh. Ansarul Haq along with Mst. Saiqa, the appellant herein, had hatched a conspiracy with the militants for eliminating Sub-Inspector Imtiyaz Ahmad Mir. During the course of investigation, call details of mobile cell phones of both the accused were collected and it was established that accused Ansarul Haq and Mst. Saiqa were in contact with the militants on the day of occurrence. Their mobile cell phones were seized and sent to FSL, Srinagar for retrieval of data. The vehicle belonging to Ansarul Haq was also seized and CCTV footage of some of the places visited by accused Saiqa on the day of occurrence was also collected. After investigation of the case offences under Section 302 RPC read with Section 7/27 Arms Act, Sections 13 and18 UAPA and Section 120-B RPC were found established against accused Ansarul Haq and Saiqa, who were taken into custody on 22.11.2018 and 05.12.2018 respectively.

4. From a perusal of the trial Court record it is revealed that initially the appellant had moved Principal Sessions Judge, Pulwama for grant of bail. It is pertinent to mention here that at the relevant time, the Principal Sessions Judge, Pulwama was also exercising the powers of Special Judge Designated under NIA Act and these powers were later on conferred upon Additional District and Sessions Judge (TADA/POTA) Srinagar in terms of SRO 149 dated 01.03.2019. Learned Principal Sessions Judge, Pulwama vide his order dated 27.02.2019 admitted the appellant to interim bail on medical grounds till 25.03.2019. Vide his order dated 25.03.2019, the learned Sessions Judge after taking note of SRO 149 dated 01.03.2019 transferred the bail application to Additional District and Sessions Judge (TADA/POTA) Srinagar for further proceedings.

5. Learned Special Judge Designated under NIA Act, Srinagar [Additional District and Sessions Judge (TADA/POTA), Srinagar], after hearing the parties, finally disposed of the bail application of the appellant vide impugned order dated 28.09.2019, whereby the bail application of the appellant was dismissed. Learned Special Judge while doing so considered the merits of the case and came to the conclusion that taking into consideration the nature and gravity of the offence, the larger inte