JK: High Court allows PDP leader Waheed Para to travel in country*

*JK: High Court allows PDP leader Waheed Para to travel in country*

Srinagar, Dec 2: After four years, People’s Democratic Party leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Para, accused in a terror conspiracy case, was granted permission to travel within the country by the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on Tuesday.

Para was granted bail by a division bench of the High Court in May 2022 on a surety of Rs 1 lakh with directions to be present before the investigating officer as and when required, and to surrender his passport and not leave the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir without the prior permission of the trial court.

Para had moved an application for allowing relaxation of the condition for travel outside Jammu and Kashmir.

On Tuesday, a bench comprising Justices Vinod Chatterji Koul and Sanjeev Kumar allowed him to travel within the country after informing the trial court.

“…the petitioner (Para) shall be entitled to leave the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and move within the country after intimating his location and purpose of visit to the trial court,” the High Court said in its two-page order.

Advocate Shariq J Reyaz submitted before the court that Para was an MLA and has to move out of the Union Territory time and again in connection with his official and other duties, and this bail condition is creating a lot of hardship and inconvenience to him.

The court said in its order that “…we are of the considered opinion that it would be in the interest of justice to modify the condition…”

Para was arrested by the NIA in November 2020 in connection with a case for allegedly supporting the Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit, a charge denied by the PDP, which had termed his arrest as “politically motivated”.

He got bail in January 2021, but before he could walk out of jail, the Jammu and Kashmir police arrested him.

While granting him bail in 2022, the High Court had said that the evidence assembled by the investigating agency and relied upon by the prosecution to prosecute him “is too sketchy to be believed prima facie true”.–(PTI)
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