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HC grants bail to Kashmir Walla editor Fahad Shah
“We are following the procedures set in the bail. It will take some time before Fahad Shah walks out of jail,” senior advocate PN Raina, who represented the editor of Kashmir Walla news portal before the high court, said
The high court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed several charges, including that of terror conspiracy, against an editor of a news portal while granting him bail after 21 months in jail.
“We are following the procedures set in the bail. It will take some time before Fahad Shah walks out of jail,” senior advocate PN Raina, who represented the editor of Kashmir Walla news portal before the high court, said.
He said charges such as terror conspiracy (Section 18) and waging war against the country (Section 121) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration (Section 153-B) of the Indian Penal Code were quashed against Shah.
The case was heard on Friday by a Jammu wing of the bench, comprising justice Sreedharan and justice ML Manhas.
He said Shah will, however, face trial under Section 13 (abetting unlawful activities) of the UA(P)A. He will also undergo trial for allegedly receiving foreign funds illegally.
“The bench announced the bail on Friday but it is yet to be uploaded and will take time till Monday. There are some formalities which need to be fulfilled. After they are completd, Shah will be released,” said Jahanzeb Ahmad Hamal, one of the advocates in Shah’s legal team.
In April, the high court had quashed Shah’s detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Shah, 34, was arrested on February 4, 2022 by Pulwama police under the charges of allegedly glorifying militancy and sedition after running a story on an encounter. Police said that three separate first information reports (FIRs) were registered against Shah in four years – one each in Srinagar, Pulwama and Shopian.
Shopian police had arrested Shah and taken his custody from the Pulwama cops on February 26, 2022 hours after the scribe was granted bail by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court. Shah was then arrested on March 6, 2022, by Srinagar Police in a case registered at the Safa Kadal police station under UAPA.
He was eventually booked under Public Safety Act on March 06, 2022 under which a person can be jailed without trial for upto two years.
A probe was conducted into an op-ed allegedly written by Abdul Aala Fazili, a doctorate scholar at Kashmir University, in 2011.
In April 2022, the state investigation agency had raided the house of Fazili for writing the alleged “seditious” article in 2011 and the office of the online magazine “The Kashmir Walla” in which the aforementioned atricle was published. The agency also raided Shah’s house.
With agency inputs
