Release Nayeem Khan's brother detained for clicking lock-up photo: Court

A court here on Thursday ordered Delhi Police to release Kashmiri separatist leader Nayeem Khan's brother who was detained for clicking a photo of the lock-up at Patiala House Courts Complex earlier in the day.

Additional Sessions Judge Tarun Sherawat ordered Tilak Marg Police Station to release Nayeem's brother Munir Khan and delete the photo which he clicked when he had come to meet him in the Patiala House Courts Complex lock-up.

Nayeem told the court that police personnel snatched the phone of his brother who had come from Kashmir to meet him during Thursday's hearing and detained him in the Tilak Marg Police Station.

On enquiry, the lock-up incharge told the court that he had informed the police in view of the security concerns regarding the courts complex.

The police presented Khan's brother before the court who sought apology for clicking the photo of the lock-up.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed charges under stringent anti-terror laws against seven jailed Kashmiri separatist leaders for allegedly conspiring with Pakistan-based terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin to wage war against India to secede Jammu and Kashmir.

The court has fixed January 30 for consideration of the chargesheets and extended the judicial custody of seven jailed Kashmiri separatists and a businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali.

On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them -- Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah -- on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.

--IANS

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