SRINAGAR (Jammu and Kashmir): A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Srinagar on Wednesday denied permission to Youth President of the People Democratic Party (PDP) Waheed Ur Rehman Para to travel to the US to enroll for a 3-month peace fellowship program at Yale University. The application was denied by designated under the Act.
Para had been recently selected for the program at the Yale University after which he had approached the court for permission. However, the court denied him the permission on the grounds that Para has been charged with strong ties to both local and foreign militants as well as sponsoring, supporting, and enabling militant groups and operations.
The court observed that Para has been accused of violating many articles of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which carry the death penalty and life in jail as penalties, for the claimed crimes. Special judge Sandeep Gandotra said that there are “legitimate concerns that Para may leave India and obstruct the gathering of evidence against him”.
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"Not only the trial of the case will get hampered which is at evidence stage but there are genuine apprehensions of the applicant fleeing from the country and him trying to disrupt the collection of evidence in the USA for which MLAT request has been sent through government of India," the order said.
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh granted Para bail on May 25, 2022 in the alleged militancy links case with a number of restrictions.
One of these requirements was that he will be unable to leave Jammu and Kashmir without the trial court's prior approval. Additionally, he was told to hand over his passport to the investigating officer. Due to these restrictions, Para petitioned the NIA court for authorization to leave the country and the release of his passport. He did this by mentioning that he had been chosen to serve as the first peace fellow of the YALE Peace Fellowship, 2023, which will begin in September and finish in November of this year.
The application was objected by the Public Prosecutor (PP), who said that the Fellowship was an “attempt to obstruct the investigation and trial against Para”. Additionally, the Public Prosecutor said that Section 51 of the UAPA prohibited giving Para permission to depart since his passport is presumed to have been seized.
The trial court has discretion to determine how long a passport should be impounded for and even whether to release it, depending on the specific facts and circumstances of the case, the special court ruled, rejecting the Public Prosecutor's argument regarding Section 51, UAPA. However, the Court went on to deny Para's request due to worries that its permission to go overseas might impede the investigation and trial against him, which is currently at the evidence stage.
