Court to pass order on charges against Hizbul chief on September 21

New Delhi: A Delhi court is likely to pass on September 21 its order on framing of charges in a case in which Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin is listed in a charge sheet for allegedly receiving nearly Rs 80 crore funds from Pakistan for carrying out terror activities across India.

The court said that if no clarification was required on arguments advanced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the four accused, who are present before it, then it would pass the order on charge on September 21.

"Now the case to come up for clarifications, if any/order on charge on September 21," Additional sessions judge Neena Bansal Krishna said. NIA had filed charge sheets in the case against Salahuddin and 11 others, in which eight are based in Pakistan and have been declared proclaimed offenders by the court earlier.

They have been named in the charge sheet for the offences punishable under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 121-A (conspiring to commit certain offences against the state) of the IPC and under various provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

NIA, in its charge sheets, had alleged that Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) was "regularly receiving funds from neighbouring country" and the funds were given to "active terrorists, families of killed terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir."

It had said that about Rs 80 crore was received for terror activities in India in past eight years and funds continued to come from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

NIA had said that "in the garb of one Jammu Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART), the terror outfit is actively involved in furthering the terrorist activities in India." In its first charge sheet, besides Salahuddin, the NIA has named as accused Mohd Shafi Shah, Talib Lali, Gulam Nabi Khan, Umer Farooq Shera, Manzoor Ahmed Dar, Zaffar Hussain Bhatt, Nazir Ahamd Dar, Abdul Majeed Sofi and Mubarak Shah.

Out of the 10 accused, only Mohd Shafi Shah and Talib Lali were arrested while the others were absconding. The agency had later filed supplementary charge sheets against two other arrested accused Mushtaq Ahmed Lone and Muzzafar Ahmed Dar.

NIA had said that head office of JKART is in Rawalpindi in Pakistan and its branch offices are in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad. It had said that the money reaches India through hawala route and banking channels and are distributed through the conduits not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also in Delhi and other parts of the country.

Giving details of the banned terror group, NIA had said HM has established its main office at Islamabad in Pakistan while JKART is its "frontal organisation". Regarding the money paid to the cadres of HM, the NIA had said their "monthly remuneration has increased from Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 per month in 1990s to Rs 10,000-12,000 per month in 2011."