Now Reading: NIA court orders no unnecessary handcuffing for separatist Shabir Shah
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NIA court orders no unnecessary handcuffing for separatist Shabir Shah
A special NIA court in Jammu has ordered jail authorities not to unnecessarily handcuff separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, 74, while moving him from Kot Bhalwal Central Jail to a hospital or…
A special NIA court in Jammu has ordered jail authorities not to unnecessarily handcuff separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, 74, while moving him from Kot Bhalwal Central Jail to a hospital or court. The direction, passed on August 18 by special judge Prem Sagar, came on Shah’s plea that handcuffing could cause him pain and endanger his health given his multiple ailments, including hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease.
Shah was arrested in April by the NIA in connection with a three-decade-old terror case over mob violence and firing on policemen during a terrorist’s funeral in Srinagar in 1996. The arrest came shortly after he was released on bail from nearly seven years in custody on other NIA cases, including terror funding. The judge noted Shah is of advanced age and should be escorted with sufficient security but without unnecessary handcuffs, in line with jail manual rules.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The NIA's decision to revive a 1996 case against Shabir Shah, then 74, after he had already spent seven years in custody on other charges, breaks with the usual pattern of agencies moving to trial while an undertrial is already in jail. The Jammu court's intervention on handcuffing follows long-standing Supreme Court precedent that restraining an undertrial in visible irons is permissible only when there is clear evidence he is likely to escape or cause violence, not as a routine escort procedure. Shah's bail in the terror-funding case had already signalled that the courts do not see him as a flight risk. The key date now is the next listing of the 1996 case before the NIA special court, where the prosecution must show evidence linking Shah to the 1993 mob violence that killed a policeman.
Source: newindianexpress.com
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