Supreme Court rejects bail plea by alleged ISIS sympathiser

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a bail plea by a man, arrested by the Gujarat police in 2017 for allegedly collecting funds and recruiting people for international terror organisation ISIS.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli rejected the petition filed by advocate Farrukh Rasheed on behalf of accused Ubed Ahmed alias Ubaid Mirza.

"Allegations are very serious against you. There is evidence against you. At this stage, there is no reason for us to discard those evidences. You have been working as ISIS agent. Your WhatsApp chats pertain to killing people of other religion," the bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, told senior advocate Siddhartha Dave.

In his arguments, Dave said the man, who was a practising advocate in Surat, has been in jail for four years without charges having been framed, in gross violation of his fundamental rights.

"Only allegation is that I was recruiting some people from ISIS for money. The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act has been invoked against me on the basis of Facebook posts and WhatsApp chats, though not single paise has been recovered from me," he said.

The counsel also claimed the accused never traveled to Syria.

The bench, however, said, "We are not saying we can’t grant you bail because the UAPA has been invoked. In fact, the nature of allegations is very serious."

The court also asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat ATS over the reason for delay in trial.

He responded by saying it was because the accused or co-accused had challenged every single order passed by the trial court.

Finally, the bench said, "We are not inclined to grant bail. We direct the trial court to complete trial in one year. The trial has to continue at least two days a week."

The petitioner was arrested on October 25, 2017 on allegations that he was radicalised with the philosophy of ISIS by Safi Armar alias Al Hindi of Syria/Iraq and Abdullah Al Faizal of Jamaica.

He was allegedly found discussing, advocating, disseminating ISIS ideology on social media or sharing social media links with another accused, Kasim, who was planning to carry out a lone wolf attack at Synagogue in Ahmedabad. His chats allegedly revealed that he wanted to buy a pistol and generate funds through smuggling of cigarettes, gold or old cars.

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