NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the NIA for referring to certain alleged inflammatory speeches of 1990s while opposing the bail plea of Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah in a terror funding case.
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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 said there were inflammatory videos which were found from Shah’s premises when his house was searched. He also said 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. (PTI)
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