The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has objected to an application by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Waheed Ur Rehman Para, who is out on bail after arrest in an alleged terror case, seeking travel permission to New Delhi to visit his nephew at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Waheed sought an NIA court’s nod to travel as his bail conditions bar him from leaving Jammu and Kashmir without permission.
Waheed’s father Ghulam Ahmad Para is undergoing treatment for cancer from the Tata Institute in Mumbai, and his seven-year-old nephew is admitted in AIIMS with a “life threatening” disease.
“The present petition… is not maintainable and needs to be dismissed as the intention of the applicant/accused is to flee from the clutches of law,” the NIA said in its objection filed before the court. “There is strong apprehension that the applicant/accused would misuse the liberty and may not come back to face the proceedings in relation to the charge sheet that has already been filed,” it said.
Once known as a youth icon for democracy and dialogue, Waheed was publicly praised by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in 2018 for his youth engagement in the Valley. As secretary of the sports council, he was considered the main player to wane the youth away from violence and bring them into the mainstream. However, following the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’ special status in 2019, the NIA arrested him in an alleged terror case.
Waheed, who is also president of PDP’s youth wing, has submitted the medical records of his nephew with the application, but the NIA has said “it can’t verify the same in a short span of time”.
“Additionally, the well-being of the nephew can be adequately addressed by his parents or other immediate family members,” the NIA said.
The agency said that “such repeated” applications to travel outside Jammu and Kashmir may be “construed as a calculated strategy to evade justice”. Over the last two years, Waheed has made several appeals for travel to Mumbai to accompany his father, who is a cancer patient. He was allowed once to accompany his father for a week.
The NIA further said that Waheed had sought permission for a fellowship programme in the United States, but didn’t “eventually pursue” it. While Waheed’s passport was with the NIA under a bail condition, he was denied permission to move out of the country. As he approached the J&K High Court seeking permission for travel to the US, his passport was subsequently revoked by the Regional Passport Officer in Srinagar “for being a threat to the security of the state” along with the passports of over 100 journalists, academics, political leaders, and activists.
Waheed has also written to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and J&K’s Director General of Police R R Swain seeking their intervention so that he could help “provide some respite to my kin”.
