Mehbooba Mufti faces the heat as NIA court frames charges against confidant Waheed Para

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<strong>In a setback to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a designated court for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has on Monday framed charges of facilitating funding and links to some terror outfits against the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s confidant Waheedur Rehman Para.</strong></p>
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Upon conclusion of the lengthy arguments and counterarguments over the charge sheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Counter Insurgency Kashmir (CIK) in June 2021, presiding officer of the NIA and TADA cases in Srinagar observed that the agency had enough material and evidences for prosecution of the accused in judicial custody. According to the CIK charge sheet, Mehbooba Mufti’s political aide and President of her party’s youth wing, Para was “an asset for Pakistan-based terror groups” and that his 13-year journey as a journalist and politician from 2007 to 2020 was a “saga of subterfuge, deceit and double-dealing”.</p>
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In the last over six weeks, the special court had heard arguments on framing of charges from the prosecution and counterarguments from the defence against Para, who had allegedly established and maintained liaison with the designated global terror outfits Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. He allegedly sought support from terrorists for political gains and reciprocated the same by providing a range of help to the two organisations. Framing of the charges was allowed on Monday.</p>
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<strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/kashmir-news/do-kashmir-s-murky-double-dealings-stop-with-waheed-para-95095.html">Do Kashmir's murky "double dealings" stop with Waheed Para?</a></strong></p>
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The eight-page order stated that “prima facie there is sufficient evidence against the accused for alleged commission of offences under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code”. The judge charged Para with being a member of a terror group, besides raising funds and aiding the organisation. He was charged under different sections of UAPA and IPC related to waging war against the country, spreading disaffection against the Government and criminal conspiracy.</p>
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“I have gone through the police report as well as the statements of the witnesses of the prosecution and have applied my mind into the present facts and circumstances levelled in the police report…As well as statements of the witnesses and the digital evidence against the accused, there is sufficient evidence against the accused for alleged commission of offences…,” the judge said in his order.</p>
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With the help of five protected witnesses and technical intelligence, the CIK submitted a charge sheet before the court alleging that Para was “hand in glove with terrorists to further the agenda of Pakistan-based terror groups and also to ensure that his political adversaries are neutralised”.</p>
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The 19-page charge sheet, with voluminous annexures, has given instances of Para’s alleged attempts to eliminate the PDP’s political opponents and to help his party leaders by paying money to terror groups to manipulate the electoral battle in his party’s favour. Para’s lawyer has denied all these charges and said that he would contest the order against his client.</p>
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<strong>Also Read: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/kashmir-news/nia-s-first-chargesheet-against-a-pdp-leader-waheed-para-for-terror-involvement-75582.html">NIA’s first chargesheet against a PDP leader — Waheed Para — for ‘terror involvement’</a></strong></p>
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According to the charge sheet, Para was deeply linked to LeT’s Abu Dujana and Abu Qasim, two Pakistani commanders who had headed the organisation in Kashmir for several years before their death in two separate encounters. Para allegedly used to meet the two terrorists, directly as well as through LeT’s Over-Ground Workers (OGWs) when his party PDP was in a ruling coalition with the BJP. The charge sheet inter alia alleges that Para also facilitated a Pulwama woman’s marriage against her will with Abu Dujana.</p>
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During the same period, Para also functioned as Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council and operated the Union Sports Ministry’s flagship programme ‘Khelo India’. One of the events was organised at a South Kashmir playground named as ‘Shaheed Burhan Wani Stadium’ by the militants and their student sympathisers after the Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’, killed in an encounter with security forces in July 2016.</p>
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The CIK charge sheet says that Para joined the PDP in 2013 and “once ensconced in the safety of a recognised political party…, the accused systematically went about strengthening himself by craftily deepening his roots on two sides of the divide — India and Pakistan”.</p>
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“…Parra had the permission of the Pakistani establishment to keep throwing crumbs at India, allowing them petty tactical gains and systematically pushing the overall situation, slowly but surely, in favour of Pakistan in a strategic sense. What played out over 13 years (2007-2020) was a saga of subterfuges, deceit and double meaning,” the charge sheet alleges.</p>
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Holding a mandate to probe cases under the UAPA and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the CIK has obtained sanction for Para’s prosecution from the Jammu and Kashmir Home Department under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Even when the NIA investigation against Para was in progress in 2020, the CIK had filed a separate case against anonymous politicians and others, based on “reliable and confidential sources who said some political functionaries were misusing their power and helping militants”.</p>
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The NIA filed its preliminary charge sheet against Para in March 2021, alleging that in 2016 the PDP youth leader had paid Rs 5 crore to the separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani through his son-in-law Altaf Fantoosh “for keeping Kashmir in turmoil after the death of Burhan Wani”. The NIA arrested Para in November 2021 but the designated court in Jammu released him on bail, pointing out that there was no reference to him in the original as well as the supplementary charge sheets presented in July and October 2020.</p>
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However, Para was taken into custody by the CIK sleuths immediately after his release in Jammu. The agency contested his bail applications and he has been languishing in different jails since last year.</p>