Separatist leader Shabbir Ahmed Shah
– Photo : Social Media
Expansion
The court has granted bail to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah in a money laundering case linked to alleged terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir. The court said Shah was in custody for six years and 10 months in the case, the maximum sentence in which was seven years. Additional Sessions Judge Dheeraj More, in the order granting statutory bail to Shah, said that the other cases in which the separatist leader was in custody were of very serious nature.
The judge said, however, that this cannot be a sufficient ground to deny him statutory bail when he has not been convicted of any offence. The judge said that even if he is granted bail in this case, he is unlikely to be released from jail in the other alleged offences before July 24, 2024, the date on which the maximum sentence of seven years for him as an undertrial prisoner in the present case expires.
Shah had sought bail on the ground that he has already undergone more than half of the maximum sentence prescribed for the offence of money laundering in the case. The application claimed that Shah has been in custody in the case since July 26, 2017. He will complete the maximum imprisonment of seven years as an undertrial prisoner on July 25. He also said that co-accused Mohd. Aslam Wani was acquitted of all charges except the offence punishable under Section 25 Arms Act. The application claimed that after his acquittal in the scheduled offences, the prosecution’s allegation of earning the proceeds of crime as a result of criminal activity related to the scheduled crime did not stand.
