The court established that undue delay in trial and lack of substantive evidence justifies the grant of bail under UAPA, emphasizing the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

JUDGMENT

AMIT SHARMA, J.

1. The present appeal under Section 21(4) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, (for short, ‘CrPC’) seeks the following prayers: -

“a) Allow the appeal and set aside the order dismissing the application via the impugned order dated 22.04.2024 passed by the Ld. Additional Sessions Judge, ASJ–03 / Special Court (NIA), New Delhi, arising out of FIR No. RC- 20/2017/NIA/DLI and further, direct the jail authority to release the appellant from the Jail in the present case and/ or;

b) pass such further orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit.”

Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:BHASKAR CRL.A. 576/2024 Page 1 of 27

2. The case of the NIA-Respondent against the present Appellant, as per the reply dated 21.08.2024, filed to the present appeal is as under: -

“1. That in pursuance to the Order No 11011/46/2017-IS-IV dated 27.11.2017 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, the National Investigation Agency (hereinafter referred to as "NIA"), PS New Delhi has registered a case vide FIR no. RC- 20/2017 /NIA/DLI dated 27.11.2017 under sections 120B, 468 & 471 of the Indian Penal Code; sections 17, 18, 18B, 19, 20, 21, 38, 39 & 40 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (hereinafter referred to as “UA (P) Act, 1967”); section 12 of the Passport Act;

section 34 of the Aadhar Act; section 7 & 25 of the Arms Act.

2. That, the case has been registered based on the allegations that the proscribed terrorist outfit Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT) based in Pakistan has activated its network based in UAE, to send money to LeT operatives, based in India for reconnaissance of targets for carrying out attacks. One of the LeT operatives operating in India has been identified as Shiekh Abdul Naeem@ Sohail Khan (A-1 ), who has already established his base in Bihar, Odisha, UP and Jammu and Kashmir and is on the lookout for possible targets in and around Delhi. He has also established contacts with other LeT operatives in India, UAE and is regularly taking directions from Amzad@ Rehan (A-8), LeT commander based in Pakistan and in charge of operations in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Maldives. On 28.11.2017, accused Shaikh Abdul Naeem @ Sohel Khan (A- 1) was arrested at Charbagh, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He was arrested for his involvement in raising funds from the main operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) based Pakistan for terrorist activities in India.

3. During investigation, it was established that accused Bedar Bakht @ Dhannu Raja (A-2), Towseef Ahmad Malik @ Tipu (A- 3), Mafooz Alam, Habib Ur Rehman (A-9) and Amzad @ Rehan @ Abdullah Rashid @ Abdul Aziz @ Wali (A-8) had arranged shelter, logistics, mobile phones to accused Shaikh Abdul Naeem@ Sohel Khan (A-1), raised funds for the him and had also facilitated him in engaging fake identity as Sonu/Sohel Khan who is actually Shaikh Abdul Naeem (A-1).

Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:BHASKAR CRL.A. 576/2024 Page 2 of 27

4. That, Shaikh Abdul Naeem@ Sohail Khan (A-1), previously sentenced to capital punishment for possession of special category of explosives vide judgement dated 11.12.2018 by fast-track court 1, At Bongaon, North 24 Parganas U/S 419/420/468/469/471/121/121A/122/124A/120B in Case No. 179/2007 ofBongaon PS dated 04.04.2007.

5. That, during investigation of the present case, it was revealed that accused/appellant Javed Ali @Javed (A-11) son of Mohammad Imran, resident of Village- Khampur, Post Office- Khudda, Police StationChapar, District- Muzaffamagar, Uttar Pradesh went to Riyad, Saudi Arabia on work permit and he came in to contact with accused Gul Nawaz (Accused now discharged, hereinafter read as AD-10) (AD-10) resident of Phulas, Muzaffamagar, Uttar Pradesh, who was working as a taxi driver at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

6. Investigation revealed that in the year 2017, accused/appellant Javed (A-11) came into contact with one Zakir, resident of Pakistan, Zakir told the accused J