Bail plea of ‘IS recruit’ on Monday

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has scheduled the hearing of the bail application filed by alleged IS recruit Areeb Majeed, arrested under the anti-terror law on November 23. A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and V L Achliya on Thursday adjourned the case, after the prosecution sought time.
Areeb, along with three youths from Kalyan -- Saheem Tanki, Fahad Shaikh and Aman Tandel -- were part of a pilgrim group from India to Iraq when they went missing in May 2014.Areeb and the three others were suspected to have joined the Syria-based international terrorist group. Initially, believed to have died, Areeb was deported to India and arrested by the National Investigation Agency on November 28, 2014. The NIA filed a 8,000-page chargesheet in May 2015 against Areeb under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code for waging war against a country friendly to India.
Areeb said that in violation of rules a sessions court had extended the time given to the National Investigation Agency for filing the chargesheet, when it should have been done by a special NIA court. The sessions court had exceeded its jurisdiction and the order was illegal, the petition said, challenging the same court’s order to extend his custodial remand.
The court was informed on Thursday that the prosecutor assigned the case was on leave. Advocate Mubin Solkar told the court that the petition filed in June 2015 had been pending due to time sought by the prosecution.