Terror funding: Court hands over Kashmiri activist Khurram Parvez, others to NIA

PTI, Feb 22, 2022, 8:58 AM IST

Image source: Bar&Bench

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday sent Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez and two others to NIA custody to confront them with a former superintendent of police, who was recently apprehended by the agency in a terror funding case in the Valley.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had on Friday arrested IPS officer Arvind Digvijay Negi, a former SP posted with the agency, for allegedly leaking secret documents to an overground worker of banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Special Judge Parveen Singh handed over the custody of accused persons – Muneer Ahmad Chowdhary, Arshid Ahmad Tonch, and Parvez – to the NIA for their custodial interrogation till February 25 in the case filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), including those related to terrorism and terror funding.

”I am of the opinion that after the arrest of Negi certain new material which pertained to these accused needs to be scrutinised, and at the same time, connectivity of these accused with the said accused and the extent of the conspiracy… these accused needs to ascertained,” the judge said.

He said that the data, which has been recently received from CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), needs to be put to the accused, ”therefore, the custodial examination of above named accused persons is essential”.

The NIA had sought seven days’ custody of the three accused, alleging that they had been running a network of overground workers of the LeT and recruited persons from various states. In pursuance to conspiracy, the accused were in contact with their foreign-based handlers, and upon their directions were engaged in gathering intelligence on vital installations, security forces as well as identification of target locations for the launching of terrorist attacks, the agency said.

The NIA plea stated that during the investigation, searches were conducted at various places in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, and West Bengal, and incriminating documents and materials, and objects were seized.

Based on the statements of witnesses and on analysis of seized digital devices, accused Negi was arrested, it told the court, adding that all the four accused are connected to each other. It said that the four were required to be confronted with each other and some other witnesses and evidence in the case.