Date:20/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/06/20/stories/2006062006411200.htm

National

Notice on SLP by POTA case accused

Siddharth Narrain

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice in a Special Leave Petition filed by an alleged member of the terrorist organisation Harkat-ul-Zehadi-Islami, Ghulam Mohammad Dar, against a Jammu and Kashmir High Court order dismissing his appeal under Section 34(4) of the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act challenging the POTA Court's refusal to grant him bail.

Mr. Dar is facing a number of charges under POTA, including planning to assassinate President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to abduct cricket players Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, and trigger explosions at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

On May 19, 2006, a two-judge Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court comprising Justice Manmohan Sarin and Justice J.M. Malik while rejecting the appeal filed by Mr. Dar challenging the POTA court's refusal to grant him bail ordered expeditious trial.

Mr. Dar was arrested on August 8, 2002 from his house in Srinagar.

He was produced before the POTA court in New Delhi on August 7, 2002 and has been detained in Central Jail, Tihar since then.

He has claimed that he had been detained merely on the basis of an alleged confessional statement recorded by the Deputy Commissioner of Police on August 14, 2002.