New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the stand of the NIA on appeals by hardline separatist Aasiya Andrabi and her two associates challenging their conviction for conspiring to wage war against India and being members of a terrorist organisation under stringent anti-terror law UAPA.
Andrabi (62), the founder of the all-women separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) in 1987, and her close aides — Nahida Nasreen (58), and Sofi Fehmeeda (48)– were convicted by the special NIA court on January 14, which said the trio had orchestrated a systematic campaign to destabilise J-K.
On March 24, the trial court awarded life imprisonment to Andrabi, while Fehmeeda and Nasreen received a 30-year prison sentence.
On Monday, a bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajan condoned the delay in filing the appeals against the trial court decision and said it would issue notice to the investigating agency in the matter.
The bench also gave time till September 15 to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to reply to their pleas seeking suspension of sentence and listed the matter for hearing on October 6.
Andrabi and her two associates were formally charged with multiple offences under the stringent UAPA and the IPC in February 2021.
It was alleged that they plotted to wage war against the country, besides conspiring to carry out terror-related activities.
The trial court found them guilty of offences under UAPA sections 18 (punishment for conspiracy) and 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation).
It also convicted the three under IPC sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against Government of India), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief).
While sentencing the convicts, the trial judge said “no remorse has been shown by any of the convicts in respect of their acts; rather it is submitted that they are proud of what they were doing and also that they will continue to do the same work”.
Showing any leniency will amount to infusing a fresh lease of life and vigour in the spirit of convicts which aims at secession of an integral part of India, the trial judge had stated.
In April 2018, on directions of the Union Home Ministry, the NIA registered a case against them as well as the DeM.
According to the FIR, the “central government has received information that Aasiya Andrabi and her associates namely Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen are actively running a terrorist organisation named as ‘Dukhtaran-E-Millat’ (DeM) which is proscribed under the First Schedule to the UAPA”.
“They are using various media platforms to spread insurrectionary imputations and hateful speeches that endanger the integrity, security and sovereignty of India. The DEM through Andrabi openly advocates secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India and has also called for Jihad and use of violence against India,” the FIR alleged.
The agency also said that Andrabi and her associates had spoken, written and also published “visible representations that bring into hatred and contempt apart from exciting disaffection towards the Government of India”.
The organisation, it added, is promoting enmity, hatred and ill-will between different communities on the grounds of religion and is doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
Andrabi has solicited help from proscribed terrorist organisations and along with her associates, has entered into a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India, the FIR alleged.
Andrabi was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police in Anantnag in April 2018 for allegedly planning to organise a large-scale demonstration and stone-pelting in the area. She was subsequently sent to jail.
