The Hindu : No justification for bail: judge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 14, 2002

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No justification for bail: judge

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 13. The Kashmir Times journalist, Ifthikar Geelani, in jail for the last five months, has been denied bail by a Delhi court. Mr. Geelani had been arrested for possessing information from a published article available on the Internet. He had been charged with violating the Official Secrets Act for possessing information "prejudicial to the security of the country''.

Counsel for Mr. Geelani, V.K. Ohri, had applied for bail on the ground that the case was a politically motivated one, as Mr. Geelani was the son-in-law of the incarcerated Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Shah Gilani.

He had shown that the information on Mr. Geelani's computer, which was from a research article published by the Institute for Strategic Studies Islamabad in 1996, was available not only on the Internet but in Government-funded university and institutional libraries in the capital.

Mr. Geelani had the information in his capacity as a journalist.

Passing the order denying him bail, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, maintained that "under Section 3(2) of the Official Secrets Act, it is not necessary to show that the accused was guilty of any particular act tending to show a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State.''

The judge said in the order that in the course of the investigation the document had been verified by the Army which "categorically'' concluded that it was an information "compiled by an agent tasked to observe and report the strength and location of Indian troops'' and was "directly useful to the adversary''.

Sources in the Home Ministry have, however, admitted that the opinion from the military was not categorical but divided. In fact, there were two contrary opinions about the significance of the information. It appeared that only one had been used by the police to make its case.

The Judge, stating that "keeping in view the larger interest of public and state... there is hardly any justification for bail'', also relied on the police interpretation of routine emails received by Mr. Geelani from other journalists, which, she said, "reflect that he has an inclination towards the liberation of Kashmir''.

These included one message from Nusrat Javed, South Asia editor of the Pakistani paper News, sent on January 17, 2002, who had stated that the U.S. was serious about a solution to Kashmir and that the two men to watch were the People's Conference leader, Abdul Ghani Lone, and Yasin Malik of the JKLF.

Police suggested that since Lone was killed in May 2002, the recipient of a message referring to him was a suspect.

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