The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected appeals filed by two sons of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and other accused, challenging the framing of charges against them in a terror funding case investigated by the National Investigation Agency.
A Bench comprising Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Manoj Jain dismissed the pleas, holding that the appeals were not maintainable. The court said a detailed judgment would follow.
The appeals were directed against a 2021 order of a trial court that had framed charges in the case. The prosecution relates to alleged terror funding activities linked to Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the NIA, the case concerns the transfer of funds through hawala channels by Pakistan-based terrorists as part of a criminal conspiracy involving operatives in India. The agency has alleged that the funds were intended to fuel secessionist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Shahid Yousuf, one of Salahuddin’s sons, was arrested in October 2017. The NIA has alleged that he received funds from the Hizbul Mujahideen from abroad and later charge-sheeted him in 2018. Salahuddin’s other son, Syed Ahmad Shakeel, was arrested on August 30, 2018, from his residence in Srinagar in connection with the case, which was originally registered in 2011.
The agency has claimed that Shakeel received money through Western Union from an absconding accused, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat. It has further alleged that his name surfaced during the investigation into raising, receiving, and collecting funds for the terrorist organisation through its cadres based in Saudi Arabia.
Syed Salahuddin, the self-styled commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, has been designated a global terrorist by the United States.
