Supreme Court questions NIA for relying on separatist Shabir Ahmed Shah's speeches made 30 years ago

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday told the National Investigation Agency to produce contemporary material against Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah, instead of relying on his speeches allegedly made 30-35 years ago.

Hearing bail plea of Shah in a terror funding case, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta asked senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who represented the NIA, to produce a relevant record.

He contended that there was material, including inflammatory videos and incriminating emails, against Shah. He said the agency obtained data and sent it to CDAC for analysis, but then the Covid-19 pandemic occurred. He said, although there were communications, the NIA unfortunately has not collected the CDAC reports.

The reports were placed in the trial court on Tuesday, and CDAC report is now on record as part of the third charge sheet, he said.

Luthra said that inflammatory videos were found on Shah's premises during the house search, and there were also witness statements against Shah.

The bench, however, said, “These speeches are not new creation….they were present 30 years or 35 years ago from today, and now you recover them in 2019, and say these are the inflammatory speeches, and he says for seditious speeches he has been discharged. Speeches relate to which period, that is why the date becomes relevant,” the bench said.

The court asked the NIA to show some contemporary material, which is with it.

NIA counsel said his Facebook account was opened and he was in touch with a person, who according to them is a Pakistani, in 2017-18.

“When you have a post other people’s pages on your Facebook account. You have put it for the world at large to see. Anybody can see it, he has taken this gentleman’s post and put it on the account of the party, which he heads, which is now a banned organization,” Luthra said.

The court was informed that 34 witnesses were already examined. The NIA counsel contended that the protected witnesses would now be examined during the trial.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing on March 12.