Kashmiri Woman Who Tested COVID-19 Positive in NIA Custody Denied Bail in Terror Case

NEW DELHI:
A Kashmiri woman, who was found COVID-19 positive during her NIA custody, was denied interim bail on Tuesday by a Delhi court in a case of allegedly planning a terror attack in the country during the anti-CAA protests here.
Hina Bashir Beg, currently lodged into Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, was arrested along with her husband Jahanzaib Sami and another accused Abdul Basith earlier this year.

The judge denied her bail saying the allegation against the accused was of serious nature and that she would be given adequate medical treatment. The judge also asked advocate M S Khan, appearing for the accused, to suggest any private hospital for her treatment after he claimed that there was a lack of proper treatment facilities in government hospitals.

The accused were arrested for allegedly promoting the Islamic State”s ideology and instigating protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the NIA had alleged. COVID-19 tests of the accused persons were conducted on June 6, on the directions of the court, while their 10-day custodial interrogation ended on June 7.

“The report of COVID-19 test of accused persons namely Jahanzaib Sami and Mohd Abdullah Basith is negative but report of Hina Bashir Beigh is found positive,” the NIA informed the court.

Thereafter, the court had directed the NIA to shift her to the hospital with immediate effect.

“Delhi is struggling to cope up with the rising number of Corona positive cases that have gone up to 27,000 as of now and due to the lack of proper treatment facilities in Government Hospitals, which has also been highlighted in the media, the Delhi government has been compelled to issue a list of 56 Private Hospitals for Corona treatment,” the bail application had said.

The three accused, allegedly having links with Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), were arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police in March and sent to the judicial custody on March 23. Basith was already lodged in jail in another case being probed by the NIA when the Delhi police arrested him in the present matter.

The case was later transferred to NIA, which lodged a case on March 20 under the sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 124-A (sedition) and 153-A (provocation for causing riot) of IPC and sections 13 (punishment for unlawful activities) and 20 (being member of terrorist gang or organisation) of stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The NIA later approached a special court here seeking the custodial interrogation of three accused, which was allowed for 10 days by the judge on May 20, with a direction to the Tihar jail authorities to hand over their custody to NIA “after conducting their COVID-19 test and ensure that its found negative”.

The NIA took their remand on May 29, after the test result had come negative. The custody ended today. The agency said the accused were actively following the ideology of ISIS and planning for terror strike in India and also recruiting cadres for ISKP.

The Delhi police had earlier said, “In one audio message Abdul Basith said to Jahanzaib to motivate and prepare some guys who may be used for lone wolf attack and kill the people through a truck or lorry by running them over on people.” The police said that the trio was in contact with Abu Ushman al Kashmiri, who is the head of Indian affairs of ISKP.