NIA court grants bail to PDP youth leader Waheed Parra

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Jammu: Special Judge for NIA cases, Suneet Gupta, on Saturday granted bail to PDP youth wing leader Waheed Parra who was arrested by National Investigation Agency for alleged militant links on November 25 last year.

He shall be released on bail on his furnishing bail bond and personal surety in the amount of Rs one lakh each, order the judge after hearing both sides. The judge also directed Parra to surrender his passport to the court.

The bail order came when Parra’s counsels, senior advocate P N Raina accompanied by Alik Bambroo and Jahanzaib A Hamal advocates, successfully countered the NIA’s objections to the bail application on ground that investigations in the matter were still in progress and his release can influence prosecution witnesses. Since November 25, he had been in custody, first of NIA for 24 days and then in judicial for a month, they pointed out.

Parra, who had been instrumental in revival of PDP in South Kashmir, was arrested by NIA three days after he had filed nomination papers for the maiden District Development Council elections from Pulwama. Parra had won the election while being in custody.

According to NIA, he was arrested in connection with a case relating to Hizbul Mujahideen militant Naveed Babu and DySP Davinder Singh who were arrested by police on January 11 while travelling together in a car.  The case was transferred to NIA which charged Singh of providing shelterto Hizbul Mujahideen militants for a long time, besides aiding and abetting their activities at the behest of Pakistan.

It had first obtained 15 days remand for his custodial interrogation from the NIA court which was later extended by nine more days. Thereafter, Parra was sent to judicial custody for a month and since then, he had been in jail.