The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the Bombay High Court’s order upholding bail granted to a Mumbai youth Areeb Majeed, who is facing trial under draconian UAPA following his return from Syria after joining militant group Islamic State (IS).
According to a Live Law report, Majeed, who is facing trial in a case registered by the NIA under UAPA and Section 125 IPC(waging war against Asiatic power in alliance with India), was granted bail by the Special Court in March last year. In February this year, the Bombay High Court dismissed the appeal filed by the NIA against the trial court’s order granting bail.
During the hearing before the Supreme Court today, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju told the Top Court that Majeed was a terrorist who had returned to India to bomb the police headquarters.
But the Top Court pointed out that stringent conditions have already been imposed.
“Read the conditions for bail! He has to stay with family at Kalyan, give sureties, give his residential address, report to incharge etc”, a division bench comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and AS Bopanna observed.
A division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale had cited Majeed’s prolonged incarceration of six years and slow pace of the trial to uphold his bail, Live Law reported.
The High Court also had rejected the Special NIA Court’s findings on the merits of the case in favour of the accused.
Majeed, left for Iraq as a 21-year-old along with three other young men in May 2014 and was the only one to return to India six months later, in November 2014. He was arrested on arrival by the state’s Anti – Terrorism Squad and subsequently handed over to the NIA, the next day of his return to India.
 against the Bombay High Court's order upholding bail granted to a Mumbai youth Areeb Majeed, who is facing trial under draconian UAPA following his return from Syria after joining militant group Islamic State (IS).){kind=link}