Supreme Court Grants Bail To Suhail Thokar In J&K Larger Conspiracy Post Revocation Of Article 370 Case

The Supreme Court, today, granted bail to Suhail Ahmad Thokar, one of the accused charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA), in connection with the Jammu and Kashmir “larger conspiracy” case post revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India.

Previously, the Apex Court had asked the trial court to expedite the trial.

The Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi granted bail and ordered, "The some of the Appellants/Accused have already been enlarged on the bail. The conclusion of trial will take sometime. Taking into consideration the time period the accused have spent in custody, and also keeping in view the parity given to other Appellants, without expressing anything on merit...the nature of the allegations and the offence, the Appellant is enlarged on bail..."

ASG KM Nataraj appeared for the NIA.

Thokar challenged the judgment passed by the Delhi High Court upholding the order denying bail by the trial court.

It was the case of the prosecution that an FIR was registered subsequent to the receipt of intelligence regarding the incubation of a larger conspiracy in the Kashmir valley. It was alleged by the prosecution that the conspiracy encompassed both the physical realm as well as the digital domain and had been orchestrated by violent and proscribed terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, as well other terrorist groups, as elaborated in the charge sheet. Furthermore, it was alleged that these groups were allegedly associated with entities such as The Resistance Front (TRF), People Against Fascist Force(PAFF), and Mujahideen Ghazwat-ul-Hind (MGH).

It was also the case of that prosecution that, during the investigation, it was unearthed that, the terrorist groups, in collaboration with their facilitators and leaders based in Pakistan, along with their Over-Ground Workers within India, were involved in influencing and radicalizing susceptible local youth.

It was also alleged that, the objective was to recruit and train these young individuals for participating in acts of terrorism, which included handling weapons, ammunition, and explosive materials and these actions were intended to execute acts of terrorism, involving attacks on civilians and security forces, with the intention of spreading fear within the Kashmir Valley and in various regions of India, subsequent to the revocation of Article 370 from the Constitution of India.

The case was registered by the National Investigation Agency under Sections 120B, 121A, 122, and 123 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as well as under Sections 18, 18A, 18B, 20, 38, and 39 of the UAPA.

Cause Title: Suhail Ahmad Thokar v. National Investigation Agency (Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No (s). 83/2024)