Court allows Shabir Shah to appear via video-conferencing

A court here on Thursday allowed Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah's plea seeking to appear before the court through video-conferencing, apprehending that he could be attacked by other inmates in the lock-up or jail van.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma allowed the plea and directed the jail authorities to present Shah and alleged hawala dealer Muhammad Aslam Wani through video-conferencing.

The court order came on a plea moved by Shah's counsel M.S. Khan, who apprised the court that during the transportation of the accused from Tihar Jail to Patiala House Courts Complex in the last hearing, Shah was humiliated and threatened by the inmates. He also said that some of them were conspiring to attack Shah.

Meanwhile, the court also extended the judicial custody of the two till September 13.

Shah was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 25 in a money laundering case dating back to 2005.

Wani had reportedly confessed that he had passed on hawala money amounting to Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. The Directorate had registered a criminal case against them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Enforcement Directorate arrested Wani on August 6.

--IANS

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