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Hardline separatist leader Masrat Alam has been granted bail by a Budgam court which came down heavily on the authorities for his continuous detention, saying situations of extra-judicial detentions like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo cannot be tolerated
Chief Judicial Magistrate of Budgam Masarat Roohi said if Alam is "anti-national and detrimental to the society and public at large, let the state discharge its duty in bringing the guilty to book so that (he is) punished suitably as per the mandate of law."
While granting bail, the CJM said in an order on Wednesday that despite the fact that the state alleges the accused to be anti-national, the right of the accused, as guaranteed by the
Constitution, principles of natural justice cannot be denied to the accused indefinitely.
A first information report under various sections of Ranbir Penal Code including sedition was registered against Alam last year in April when Pakistani flags were waved at a rally organised to welcome separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani from Delhi.
"So long as this part of the country is part of the Indian Union, on which this court has no doubt, situations like Abu Ghraib (of Iraq) and Guantanamo cannot be tolerated, at least in cases which are raised in the courts against Indian citizens," the CJM said.
According to police, 27 cases have been registered against the 45-year-old leader since 1995. However, investigation has been completed in only 12 cases despite claims by the police that special investigation teams at zonal level led by respective IGPs have been constituted to speed up the probe.
"In toto, 27 cases have been registered and if 90 days are given in each case, the aggregate period of detention of every FIR is to be construed as separate FIR with a maximum limit of 90 days detention in each FIR, it would amount to 6 years and 7 months before the accused sees the light of the day from the dungeons," the court observed.
"One wonders how much investigation and what all investigation is going on in all these 15 cases by unknown Special Investigation Team, though the maximum time period provided under law is 90 days before charge sheet could be filed (sic)," the judge said.
"If such a trend is sanctioned by the courts and the law interpreted in the manner the chief prosecution officer of the state seeks the same to be interpreted, the might of the State
with more than 200 police stations throughout the state with every police station registering an FIR, granting 90 days of exhaust remand in each FIR, before the accused reaches the Court of law trial, he would have already spent 49 years and 3 months in jail, thus negating the whole presumption of innocence of the accused as guaranteed to him by the law," the CJM said.
"Such acts of the State not only weaken the criminal justice system but also create alienation between the state and its population where it becomes 'us' and 'them' and an individual no longer feels himself to be part of the state," the court said.
"Perhaps the opening word in the preamble of the Constitution is not 'us' and 'them' but 'WE The People Of India'. And it is this 'WE' which forms both 'us' and 'we' with basic emocratic ethos and guaranteeing universal human rights in the form of fundamental rights, which are inherent, and could not be abrogated even in the state of emergency," it added.
The court imposed certain bail conditions on Alam including that he furnish two sureties of Rs two lakh each, out of which one shall be a local resident of District Budgam, before the Superintendent of Sub-Jail Baramulla.
The court directed that Alam shall not hamper or tamper with the prosecution evidence, or leave the state without seeking prior permission of the court.