SRINAGAR: India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing into the case of a Kashmiri man whose arrest has triggered a controversy, may not oppose his application for bail in court.
This will, however, be done after the NIA completes its preliminary investigations.
Liyaqat Ali, a resident of northern Kashmir’s Lolab area, was arrested on March 20 after he returned from Pakistan and entered India via Nepal with his family.
Delhi police say he was an active militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen plotting a strike in New Delhi ahead of the Holi festival. The arrest sparked a row as the authorities in Kashmir contended the Delhi police saying Ali was a former militant and that they had all the information about his return from Pakistan.
He was on Saturday last sent to judicial custody till April 12 by a court in Delhi.
Sources told the TOI newspaper “Prima facie it does seem that Ali may be innocent given the circumstances of his return but unless all evidence is scrutinized nothing can be said.”
“If evidence is not found to be loaded against his claims, the agency will not oppose his bail plea. The investigation, however, will take its own time.”
The TOI reported that the NIA investigators are focusing mainly on the person who the Delhi police claimed had booked a room for Ali in a hotel near Muslim-dominated Jamia Masjid area in the capital.
The Delhi Police claimed to have recovered a cache of arms and explosives from that room.
“It is important to find this man and verify his credentials as the Delhi Police case is based on the fact that he booked a room and kept arms there and Ali was supposed to join him for an attack in the city,” the newspaper quoted its sources as having said.
