MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to retired Delhi Police ACP Sunderlal Parashar, who was arrested by the NIA for allegedly providing a firearm to a man linked to a group attempting to revive Sikh militancy for a separate Khalistan.
Parashar, 62, a Delhi resident who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019, had approached the high court after a special court in Mumbai rejected his bail plea.
A bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar granted bail to him after noting that he had been accused of providing a country-made pistol and five live cartridges.
The central agency had applied the stringent section 7 read with section 25 (1A) of the Arms Act, among other charges.
The high court aid that the above section prohibited possession of automatic, sophisticated weapons that have a potential for "mass destruction".
But in the present case, Parashar was accused of having provided a country-made pistol, it said.
"A country-made pistol hardly satisfies the description of prohibited arms. Thus, the enhanced punishment prescribed under section 25(1A) for contravention of section 7 of Arms Act may not be attracted in the facts of the case at hand," the high court said.
It, however, added that Parashar could be charged under some other sections of the Arms Act and the Indian Penal Code.
Parashar had approached the high court after the special court in Mumbai rejected his bail plea.
In his plea filed through advocate Mubin Solkar, Parashar had denied the charges against him.
He had said that he had been in touch with one of the alleged pro-Khalistan militants to gain information on some banned organisations while he was a police officer.
The HC bench quashed and set aside the special court's decision and granted Parashar bail till conclusion of trial in the case.
"The appellant has suffered incarceration for a period of two years and five months. Further incarceration of the appellant, as an under-trial prisoner, therefore, appears wholly unjustifiable," the HC said.
"Indisputably, the appellant had been a member of Delhi Police Force. It cannot be said that the appellant has no roots in society. In the context of the charge against the appellant, it does not appear that the release of the appellant would either hamper the further investigation or put hindrance in the trial," it said.
The high court, however, imposed several conditions on Parashar's bail, including a direction to him to appear before the NIA office in Mumbai once a month for the next six months.