Court directs NIA to hand over documents to separatist Aasiya Andrabi

A Delhi court Wednesday directed NIA to hand over certain documents to Kashmiri separatist Aasiya Andrabi, arrested in connection with a case of allegedly waging war against the country with support from Pakistan.

Special Judge Rakesh Syal directed the agency to hand over the copy of the charge sheet and other documents filed along with it to Andrabi, chief of the banned outfit Dukhtaran-e-Milat, and two other accused.

The charge sheet and the documents, which also included electronic copies of the accused's speeches, videos and social media links, were handed over to the accused.

The court has posted the matter for further hearing on January 17.

In its charge sheet, NIA had claimed that a probe revealed that the accused were running a concerted campaign to elicit support from the neighbouring country and accused them of being involved in conspiracy and acts to "severely destabilize the sovereignty and integrity of India".

Besides Andrabi, her associates Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen were also sent to judicial custody.

The case was registered against the three women in April this year.

Andrabi was in a prison in Srinagar after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court cancelled her bail last month.

The NIA, on directions of the Union Home Ministry, registered a case against them as well as the organisation, which is banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in April this year.

According to the FIR, the "central government has received information that Aasiya Andrabi and her associates namely Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen are actively running a terrorist organization named as 'Dukhtaran-E-Millat' (DEM) which is proscribed under the First Schedule to the UAPA".

The agency also said in the FIR that Andrabi and her associates had allegedly spoken, written and also published "visible representations that bring into hatred and contempt apart from exciting disaffection towards the Government of India".