NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Delhi High Court order granting bail to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his alleged role in a terror funding case involving Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the submissions of the NIA that the release of Watali would cause grave harm to the ongoing investigation in the terror funding case and slated the hearing for September 26, asking the accused businessman to file his response in the meantime.
The high court had on Thursday said that there was no prima facie material to show that 70-year-old Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali was involved in the case. He was arrested on August 17 last year by the NIA.
The NIA had alleged that Zahoor Watali moved money from Pakistan to Kashmir to fuel stone-pelting and unrest in the Valley. Watali, Hafiz Saeed and ten others have been accused of conspiring to wage war against the government and fomenting trouble in Kashmir.