SC cites ‘bleak chance’ of trial’s early disposal, long incarceration to grant bail to separatist Shabir Shah

NEW DELHI: Underlining that if the trial was unlikely to conclude within a reasonable time, continued detention could result in curtailment of personal liberty guaranteed under the Constitution, the Supreme Court has granted bail to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah who has been in jail for over eight years in a terror funding case. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, which observed that there were bleak chances of the trial’s early disposal and the 74-year-old had been in custody for a prolonged period, however, imposed stringent bail conditions on Shah, including not commenting to the media about the case, according to a detailed order of the March 12 verdict. Noting that Shah, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), had been in jail for eight-and-a-half years, the bench said, “Prolonged incarceration of an accused, particularly in circumstances where the trial has made little or no substantial progress, is a relevant factor in adjudicating the matter of bail.”