ASHRINGDAW WARISA @ PARTHA WARISA Vs. NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal, under Section 21(4) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, (in short, 'the NIA Act'), directed against the order, dated 16.09.2011, passed, in Misc. Case No. (NIA) 32/2011 (arising out of NIA Case No. 01/2009 under Sections 120B / 121 / 121A read with Sections 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967) by the Special Court, Guwahati, constituted under the NIA Act, whereby the prayer of the accused-appellant, Ashringdaw Warisa, to allow him to go on bail stands rejected. We have heard Mr. D. K. Mishra, learned Senior counsel, assisted by Ms. S. Jahan, learned counsel, appearing for the appellant. We have also heard Mr. Mr. D. K. Das, learned Standing counsel, National Investigation Agency, appearing for the respondents.

(2.) The material facts, giving rise to this appeal, may, in brief, be set out as under:

(3.) The above application for bail having been rejected, on 16.09.2011, by the learned Special Judge, this appeal, under Section 21(4) of the NIA Act, has, now, been preferred by the present appellant, his case being, in brief, thus: The appellant's earlier application for bail was rejected on the ground that the appellant had been staying with Jewel Garlosa, Chairman of DHD(J), at Bangalore, at the time of his arrest and that the appellant was involved in a cash transaction, at Guwahati, whereby money passed to DHD(J), though the appellant is completely innocent, he was appointed as a peace facilitator and it was necessary, on the part of the appellant, to be with Jewel Garlosa in order to convince him to come to negotiation table with the Government and it was because of the efforts made by the appellant that the members of DHD(J) agreed and submitted a memorandum, containing proposal for peace talks, in the month of July, 2008, to the Home Minister through Joint Secretary, Govt. of India. The appellant had in his possession, at the time of his arrest, documents to show that he was a peace facilitator between the Government, on the one hand, and DHD(J), on the other, and all these documents were also seized by the NIA, but the said documents do not found place in the seizure memo furnished by the NIA. Though the appellant applied to the learned Special Judge, NIA, to call for copies of the documents from the GOC, Eastern Command, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India, and Special Branch, Police Station Kahilipara, Guwahati, so as to prove the appellant's case that he was a peace facilitator, this application was turned down. Though the appellant applied for obtaining these documents to various Government agencies, his requests have not been conceded to. In the meanwhile, however, in order to facilitate the peace talk, applications, seeking bail, were made by Jewel Garlosa, Chairman, DHD(J), and Niranjan Hojai, Commander-in-Chief, DHD(J), and though their applications were not resisted by the NIA, the learned Special Judge did not allow their application for bail, whereupon both the said accused, Jewel Garlosa and Niranjan Hojai, preferred an appeal, which gave rise to Criminal Appeal No. 126/2011, and a Division Bench of this Court has passed an order, on 12.08.2011, granting interim bail for a period of four months so that the said two accused could not initiate peace talks and since thereafter, the said interim bail has been extended from time to time.