Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: June 28, 2022 at 18:21 IST
Mohammed Raisuddin was granted bail on Monday by the Bombay High Court in connection with a 2016 terror case that Kalachowkie police station in Mumbai had registered.
Raisuddin, who is a co-accused with Iqbal Ahmed, who had been granted bail by the HC in August, was granted bail by the Bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and VG Bisht.
In Raisuddin’s 2019 appeal against a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) trial court ruling denying him bail, the HC heard arguments from his counsel Mubin Solkar and AR Bukhari as well as public prosecuter Aruna Pai. Solkar sought bail based on merits, parity, and seven-year incarceration while no conclusion of trial in immediate sight.
Raisuddin was initially charged with violating the 1967 Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), but the matter was later transferred.
In a case that was later transferred to the NIA under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 (UAPA), Raisuddin was arrainged as an accused. Chargesheet was filed on October 7, 2016, and on July 17, 2019, NIA submitted a supplemental chargesheet.
The prosecution alleged that he had written and signed an oath in Urdu, but Solkar denied this, saying that a Hyderabadi forensic lab had stated that an opinion due to a lack of sufficient specimen handwriting and signatures could not be given.
The Public Prosecutor Pai opposed bail and says there could be no parity, stating that the offence was grave and serious, and that the Pune lab report demonstrates that Raisudin wrote and signed the oath. He had argued for bail so that his right to life and to individual liberty would not be compromised by extended custody, and the HC agreed, stating that the trial was unlikely to be over in a reasonable time. According to the HC, there is no legal impediment preventing the HC from considering granting bail if the fundamental right to personal liberty is is at stake.