Delhi High Court grants bail to Kashmiri rights defender Khurram Parvez (original) (raw)

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez in a fake case registered by India’s National Investigation Agency under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

According to Kashmir Media Service, a division bench comprising Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja allowed Parvez’s appeal challenging a trial court order of December 17, 2024 that had denied him bail. Parvez was arrested from Srinagar on November 22, 2021. He remained in custody for roughly 3 years and 1 month after being remanded to judicial custody on February 25, 2022, following several police custody remands.

Parvez was not named in the original FIR but was arrested during the investigation. The charge sheet ridiculously accused him of recruiting overground workers.

The appeal argued the prosecution’s case was unsupported by evidence and that Parvez was a “factual stranger” to the larger conspiracy alleged by NIA. His counsel submitted there was no digital evidence of contact with any proscribed organization, no call detail records for an alleged meeting with co-accused Muneer Ahmad Kataria, no evidence he passed sensitive military information, and no allegation linking him to any funding money trail.

Senior Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, along with Ms. Swati Khanna, Ms. Raminder Kaur, Mr. Md. Imran Ahmad, Mr. Shahzad Khan, and Mr. Kartik Venu appeared for Parvez. NIA was represented by SPP Rahul Tyagi, Ms. Priya Rai, Mr. Shubham Goyal, Mr. Jatin Khatri and Mr. Amit Rohila. Rights groups have long called Parvez’s detention arbitrary, saying UAPA is used to silence dissenting voices in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.