A view of Delhi High Court, in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea by Alemla Jamir, a self-styled “cabinet minister” of Naga rebel group NSCN-IM arrested in a terror funding case, in search of default bail on the bottom that the NIA filed an incomplete cost sheet.
The excessive court docket mentioned there was no illegality or infirmity within the orders handed by the trial court docket on occasion relating to the detention of Jamir.
“Hence in our view, filing of a complete charge sheet within the stipulated period is sufficient compliance and no default bail can be granted in a case where cognisance was taken later.”
“The custody of the accused/appellant (Jamir) cannot be termed illegal only on the ground that a sufficient amount of time was spent by the court clerk to raise objections regarding page numbering and illegible documents and the respondent/NIA had taken some time to respond to the objections and after removal of objections, the cognisance was rightly taken on July 3, 2020,” a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh mentioned.
The excessive court docket dismissed Jamir’s attraction difficult an order handed by a particular NIA court docket on July 03, 2020, rejecting her utility in search of launch on statutory bail, saying the cost sheet was filed inside the limitation interval and the attraction was devoid of deserves.
The case was lodged after Jamir was intercepted on the Delhi airport on December 17, 2019, whereas she was about to journey by air to Dimapur, and was discovered carrying ₹72 lakh.
She couldn’t clarify the supply of the money. An intimation was despatched to the Income Tax Department and the investigation was initiated.
The lady, in her assertion to the officers, had mentioned the money belonged to the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah faction). She had obtained the cash from an affiliate of Muivah, the final secretary of the rebel group, at her residence and the identical was to be handed over to Muivah at Dimapur in Nagaland, she had mentioned.
This info was handed on to the Special Cell and an FIR was registered by the Delhi Police for aiding and abetting the Naga rebel group NSCN(IM).
NIA has claimed that Jamir’s air tickets have been organized on the path of Muivah.
Her husband was a relative of Muivah and he was a steering committee member of NSCN(IM) and earlier its commander-in-chief. This cash was for use for finishing up terrorist operations in India, it alleged.
Before the High Court, Jamir’s counsel sought her launch on statutory bail on the bottom that after submitting the cost sheet on June 11, 2020, no order was handed by the trial court docket remanding her to custody.
Jamir had objected that there was no legitimate judicial remand order obtainable on the court docket file as on July 3, 2020, after taking cognisance towards her and a co-accused for an offence punishable beneath numerous provisions of the UAPA and the Arms Act.
The excessive court docket mentioned that “after taking cognisance, unless and until a bail order is passed, in our view, the undertrial has to remain in judicial custody and as it was not possible for the accused to be produced before the special court because of the Covid restrictions, her remand was rightly extended by the duty metropolitan magistrate as per the directions issued from time to time by the higher judicial authorities keeping in view the prevailing circumstances.”
