A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez and journalist-researcher Irfan Mehraj in a case investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Principal and Sessions Judge Pitambar Dutt of Delhi’s Patiala House Court ordered their release on bail in what the NIA has described as the “NGO terror funding” case. Their release is subject to completion of legal formalities.
The order follows a June ruling by the Delhi High Court granting Parvez bail in a separate NIA case after he had spent more than four-and-a-half years in custody. The High Court cited the prolonged period of incarceration, the slow pace of the trial and Parvez’s disability, noting that he lost a leg in a landmine explosion in 2004. It ordered him to surrender his passport, barred him from leaving Delhi without permission and directed him not to make public statements about the case.
Parvez, 49, is programme coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a rights group that has documented alleged human rights violations in Kashmir. Mehraj, a journalist and researcher, worked with the organisation.
Parvez was arrested by the NIA in November 2021, while Mehraj was arrested in March 2023 in the NGO terror funding case. Both have remained in custody since their arrests.
The NIA alleges that JKCCS received foreign funding that was diverted to the banned militant group Hizbul Mujahideen under the guise of human rights work. In a separate case, the agency has accused Parvez of conspiring with members of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, facilitating militant activities and collecting information on Indian security force deployments.
Parvez and Mehraj have denied the allegations through their lawyers, saying their work was limited to documenting alleged human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, custodial violence, torture and extrajudicial killings in Jammu and Kashmir.
Parvez’s arrest and detention have drawn criticism from several international human rights organisations, which have called for his release and described him as one of Kashmir’s leading human rights defenders.
The cases against Parvez and Mehraj remain under trial.
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