Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah (File | PTI)
Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah (File | PTI)

COVID-19 fear? Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah seeks separate cell in Tihar

Advocate Qausar Khan submitted that Shah is suffering from various ailments that puts him in danger in case he is found COVID-19 positive.

NEW DELHI: Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah, arrested in two separate cases of alleged terror financing, Friday moved a Delhi court seeking a separate cell in Tihar central jail.

In an application that is likely to come up for hearing on Saturday, advocate Qausar Khan submitted that Shah is suffering from various ailments that puts him in danger in case he is found COVID-19 positive.

"Looking at the recent occurrences of COVID-19 in the central jail and the health condition of the accused, his life would be in danger if he comes in contact with the virus. Therefore, direct the jail authorities to put him in a separate cell," the application filed on behalf of the separatist leader said.

The first case against him was registered in 2007 for the alleged money laundering committed in 2005 for the purpose of terror financing.

He was arrested by ED on July 25, 2017.

The case is connected to one in which which the Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Mohammad Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer.

ED had said that Rs 63 lakh was recovered from Wani, out of which Rs 52 lakh was allegedly to be delivered to Shah.

The money was received from "enemy countries" like Pakistan to promote terrorism in India, the ED had alleged.

In the second case, the NIA in June 2019, took Shah in it's custody in connection with its probe into a separate terror funding case involving Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Shah is currently in judicial custody in both the cases.

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