Funding case: NIA to file charge sheet today

New Delhi, Jan 17: A chargesheet against seven Kashmiri separatist leaders and a businessman in a case of alleged ‘terror’ funding in the Kashmir Valley will be filed by the NIA on Thursday, the day their judicial custody ends, officials said.
According to National Investigation Agency (NIA) sources, the agency will file the chargesheet against the arrested Kashmiri leaders and a businessman under various sections of money laundering and waging war against country as their judicial custody ends on January 18.
A Delhi court on January 12 extended the judicial custody of the eight accused till January 18.
The eight have been charged with receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Kashmir.
Kashmir was rocked by massive uprising after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with forces on July 8, 2016.
An official of the agency said that they will be charged under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAP Act of 1967) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 121 Waging, or attempting to wage war against the state and Section 120 B entering into criminal conspiracy.
According to a senior official of the agency, the main chargesheet prepared by the NIA contains close to 50 pages and the annexure attached to the chargesheet, may run into nearly 5,000 pages.
On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them — Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah — on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.
Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, accused of acting as a conduit for channelling funds for Hurriyat, was arrested on August 17 last year.
The NIA has filed a case against the Hurriyat leaders on May 30 following a sting operation by a television channel after Nayeem Khan allegedly confessed that Hurriyat leaders had been receiving funds from Pakistan for subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.
Hafeez Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ul Dawah, has been named in the FIR as an accused besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Dukhtaran-e-Milat. (Agencies)