NIA court in Mumbai denies bail to Chhota Shakeel aide Salim Qureshi, cites prima facie case of involvement in ‘D’ gang activities | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court while denying bail to Salim Qureshi, an alleged aide of fugitive gangster Chhota Shakeel, held that there was ample prima facie evidence to show his involvement in unlawful terror activities that are continued by wanted accused Dawood Ibrahim and Shakeel who manage their nefarious acts in India, from abroad, via associates like him.
Quereshi, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly aiding underworld don Dawood’s terror activities, had sought bail.
“The organized crime syndicate of ‘D’ Company which is also a terrorist gang headed by global and individual terrorists wanted accused…” said special NIA court Judge B D Shelke in his reasoned rejection order made available on Wednesday.
Viquar Rajguru, lawyer for Qureshi, 49, argued that his client was behind bars for over a year and there has been “after 2004, no chargesheet (was) filed against ‘D’ company’’ and “no terrorist gang is in existence after 2004″ Dawood and Shakeel are “individual terrorists” under a schedule of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act –an anti-terror law.
But special public prosecutor for NIA Shekhar Jagtap argued that crime has been registered in compliance with an order dated February 3, 2022 of the Union Home Ministry. He argued that no bail be granted as Qureshi is involved in “a deep rooted conspiracy by the ‘D’ Company, a terrorist gang, headed by global and individual terrorist wanted accused no.1- Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his associates.”
The special judge said at the bail stage in a UAPA case, as held by the Supreme Court it is not required to go deep into evidence and needs to weigh the case record on broad possibilities to form opinions whether prosecution case against the accused is true or not.
The court did not find much substance in submissions of Qureshi’s lawyer as it said the NIA reply “clearly demonstrates that wanted accused no.1 (Dawood) and 2 (Shakeel) have been designated as individual terrorists in the year 2019 and 2020 respectively’’ and Shakeel has continued ‘D’ company an organised crime syndicate for last 10 years.”
Based on the hearing and material on record the court concluded that Qureshi is not entitled to bail as the NIA case is “sufficient to hold at this stage that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against the accused is prima-facie true.” There are also having antecedents against him and the wanted accused and possibilities of him repeating the crime in future also considering nature of offence.
The order said in the chargesheet a witness statement prima facie shows “Qureshi works on Shakeel’s direction”, used to threaten people like Contractors, Builders, Land Owners for extortion and generated “huge money” eventually sent to Shakeel through Hawala which is then used for “criminal and terrorist activities” of ‘D’ Company.