Overview
- The Delhi High Court granted bail on Wednesday and released a 2021 NIA UAPA case against Khurram Parvez subject to conditions that include surrendering his passport, staying in Delhi without prior court permission, regular reporting to investigators and a ban on public statements or sharing ‘anti‑national’ material.
- The bench said Parvez’s more-than-four-year pre-trial detention, the prosecution’s plan to call about 197 witnesses and the early stage of the trial made a speedy conclusion unlikely, so his Article 21 right to personal liberty could outweigh Section 43D(5) of the UAPA.
- The court noted that key prosecution allegations rest heavily on the statement of a co-accused who turned approver and whose testimony has not yet been tested at trial.
- The NIA accuses Parvez of links to a Lashkar-e-Taiba network that recruited overground workers and gathered security-related information, while his lawyers say seized digital devices show no contact with banned groups and that contested documents reflect public human-rights work.
- Parvez will remain jailed on a separate 2020 NIA case that led to his formal arrest in 2023, and the ruling underscores a growing judicial focus on long pre-trial detention that could affect other UAPA bail challenges and the legal space for rights activism in Kashmir.