New Delhi February 26: The Indian Supreme Court has questioned the dreaded Indian agency NIA for referring to certain alleged inflammatory speeches of 1990s while opposing the bail plea of senior APHC leader Shabir Ahmed Shah in a fake funding case. Jailed APHC senior leader Shabir Shah was arrested By Enforcement Directorate in a fake case on July 2017 and was soon shifted to Tihar Jail Delhi where he is lodged till date.
The incarcerated senior APHC leader and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman, Shabir Shah was arrested again by NIA on Jun 04, 2019 in the same case related to 2017 when he was already in Tihar Jail.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, which was hearing arguments on Shah’s bail plea, that there were materials, including inflammatory videos and incriminating e-mails, against Shah.
When senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the NIA, referred to some transcripts of videos, the bench asked about the date of the speeches. Luthra said the agency had the dates for some of the videos and they were from the 1990s.
“These speeches are not a new creation. These are something which were already there, say 30 years or 35 years before today. Now, you recover them in 2019 and say that these are the inflammatory speeches,” the bench said.
Luthra claimed there were inflammatory videos which were found from Shah’s premises when his house was searched. He also alleged there were statements of witnesses against Shah as well. The bench asked Luthra about the stage of trial in the case. The senior advocate referred to the February 19 order of the trial court and said 34 witnesses were already examined.
He said now the protected witnesses would be examined during the trial. The bench, which heard the submissions advanced by the NIA, posted the matter for March 12 when senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is representing Shah, would advance his rejoinder arguments. Agencies