Delhi HC rejects plea of Hizbul chief's sons against terror funding charges

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas of two sons of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and others challenging framing of charges against them in a terror funding case.

A bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain rejected the appeals on the ground that they were not maintainable.

The detailed judgement is awaited.

The accused had challenged a 2021 trial court order framing charges against them.

According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the case pertains to the transfer of funds through hawala channels by Pakistan-based terrorists to Jammu and Kashmir, in a criminal conspiracy hatched with some operatives in India, to fuel and fund the secessionist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

While Salahuddin's son Shahid Yousuf was arrested in October 2017, his other son Syed Ahmad Shakeel was arrested by the NIA on August 30, 2018, from his Srinagar residence in connection with the terror funding case lodged in 2011.

The NIA had said Yousuf was arrested on the allegations of receiving funds from Hizbul Mujahideen from abroad and was charge-sheeted in 2018.

It had said that Shakeel allegedly received money through Western Union from absconding accused Aijaz Ahmad Bhat and his name had also surfaced in raising, receiving and collecting funds from the terrorist organisation through cadres from Saudi Arabia.

Salahuddin, designated as a global terrorist by the United States, is the self-styled commander of Hizbul Mujahideen.