Does Shabbir Shah have faith in judicial system, Constitution of India, asks Delhi court

By Sushil Batra

New Delhi [India], June 9 (ANI): A Delhi Court on Tuesday asked Shabbir Shah’s lawyer “whether your client has full faith in the judicial system and Constitution of India, take clear instructions from your client on this”, while deferred the hearing for July 1 in the bail plea of Kashmiri Separatist leader in connection with terror funding case.

Advocate MS Khan appearing for Shabbir Shah on the query of the court said that “Yes my client Shabbir Shah has full faith in the judicial system and Constitution”. Court further asked the lawyer to take specific instruction on this query. The lawyer said he will meet him and file an affidavit on record on it.

After the court proceedings, while talking to ANI, Advocate MS Khan said he has just had a word with Shabbir Shah’s wife over the phone in this regard and she clearly said, we have full faith in the judicial system of the country.

Meanwhile, Advocate Rajeev Awasthi counsel for ED assured the court that within 6 months it will conclude the evidence as it has to examine several more witnesses in the case. He further added that we have already examined 5 witnesses in the matter. While opposing the bail plea of Shabbir Shah, ED counsel said, there are several other matters too pending against him, granting bail to him would effect the case investigation.

Recently, ED in reply filed in the court had said, the present case discloses the commission of a serious crime where the accused is involved in the “generation of huge proceeds of crime from various countries including Pakistan to create unrest in Kashmir”.

“Shabbir Shah was also involved in terror financing activities as terrorists need money to sustain themselves and to carry out terrorist acts. Money-laundering is the method by which criminals disguise the illegal origins of their wealth and protect their asset bases, so as to avoid the suspicion of law enforcement agencies and prevent leaving a trail of incriminating evidence,” ED stated.

According to the ED reply, accused Shabir Ahmad Shah was in regular touch with Hafiz Sayeed Chief of Band Terrorist Outfit Jamat-Ud-Dawa (JuD), based in Pakistan. Jamat-Ud-Dawa is a banned organisation under UNSC resolution number 1267 which organises and supports cross-border terrorism.

Shabbir Shah recently had moved the bail application for grant of bail invoking the provisions of sec 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the ground that he has undergone half of the sentence prescribed for the offence of Money Laundering under section 4 of PMLA.

Aslam Wani, co-accused in the matter is already granted bail in the matter and Shah is also suffering from various health issues, stated in the bail petition.

Earlier, Shah had mentioned in a bail application that he is a chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party and allegations levelled against him are “motivated and based on falsehood”.

The first case was registered against him in 2007 for the alleged money laundering committed in 2005 for the purpose of terror financing. He was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 25, 2017, in connection with the 2005 case.

In another case, the NIA took Shah in custody in June 2019 in connection with its probe into a separate terror funding case involving Jama’at-ud-Da’wah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Several separatist leaders including Shah, Masrat Alam, and Asiya Andrabi are in judicial custody in connection with the case which involves the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. (ANI)