Date:17/11/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/11/17/stories/2002111703971300.htm

National

Geelani refused bail again

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 16. Ifthikar Geelani, journalist, Kashmir Times, was refused bail for a second time today, despite the Central Government's position that there is no reason for his continued imprisonment.

On Friday, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, told journalists that the Government had made its position known but that the court had taken a decision. "We shall see what happens in the higher court,'' he said. Today, neither the Union Home Minister nor his office was willing to comment on the matter.

Police justified Mr. Geelani's arrest saying he was in possession of information "prejudicial'' to security interests. The ``incriminating'' document that police produced as evidence was part of an article published in 1976 in the journal of a Pakistani think-tank. The journal and article are freely available in libraries here and on the Internet.

The Additional Sessions Judge, S. N. Gupta, dismissed Mr. Geelani's bail application saying that a fresh application could be filed in 15 days after police got an answer from the Army about whether or not the document was secret.

The judge earlier asked the public prosecutor if he was opposing the bail plea. The Public Prosecutor said that he would not ``object'' to bail with certain conditions. Whereupon the judge asked the investigating officer to give in writing his consent for the bail application. But he declined to do so.

Mr. Geelani's lawyer, V.K. Ohri, has filed a fresh bail application stating that his client was arrested for political reasons, and while other political prisoners had been released in Jammu and Kashmir, he remained incarcerated despite the Government having said that it did not oppose his release on bail.

Mr. Geelani, accredited by the Government of India, was arrested in June this year under the Official Secrets Act, soon after his father-in-law and Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was arrested in Kashmir. But he has maintained that he does not share his father-in-law's politics.

Questions have been raised by what the courts have seen as grounds for refusing bail to Mr. Geelani. Mr. Gupta has called for a clarification from the Army on a document that is available to the public.

An Army opinion was sought for the earlier bail application in the lower court. And the Army had said that the information had been compiled by an "agent'' of Pakistan and was "dangerous'' in enemy hands. This was the basis for refusing the bail plea earlier.

The Home Ministry has indicated that the Army opinion was divided, and that there were two contrary views on the issue.