Waheed ur Rehman Para (File photograph)
SRINAGAR: After 5 years of authorized battle, Jammu and Kashmir Excessive Court docket (HC) on Monday permitted Folks’s Democratic Celebration (PDP) legislator Waheed Parra to journey inside the nation, modifying the sooner bail situation limiting him to J&Okay.A division bench of Justices Vinod Chatterji Koul and Sanjeev Kumar, nonetheless, directed that Parra would have the ability to transfer inside India solely after “intimating his location and function of go to to the trial court docket”.Parra welcomed the order however rued the painful half-decade-long wait. “In moments when my household wanted me, in grief, loss, all I might do was wait and really feel the helplessness, which leaves a mark that by no means really fades,” he mentioned. “All through these tough, darkish years, one establishment continued to present hope — the judiciary,” he added.“You start to grasp the that means of freedom solely when it’s taken from you. You’re feeling the struggling of others extra deeply whenever you’ve carried the burden your self. Through the years, I’ve met households residing beneath related restraints. Their ache has stayed with me each single day. At the moment, I am reminded of how many individuals nonetheless dwell with silent burdens,” Parra mentioned.Parra was arrested on Aug 5, 2019 — the day Article 370 was nullified in J&Okay — after he questioned central authorities’s choice on nationwide tv. He was charged beneath CrPC Part 107 (breach of peace), and remained in detention for six months at a government-designated jail, and one other six months beneath home arrest.In Nov 2020, Nationwide Investigation Company arrested Parra in a terror conspiracy case. A particular NIA court docket, nonetheless, granted him bail within the case on Jan 9, 2021, noting that “offenses notably falling beneath Illegal Actions Act will not be prima facie made out towards the accused”.Whereas Parra was stepping out of the jail in Jammu, J&Okay Police’s CIK wing arrested him on the identical fees.Parra contested and received the 2020 District Improvement Council elections from jail.In Might 2022, J&Okay HC granted him bail, describing the proof gathered by the prosecution towards him as “too sketchy to be believed prima facie true, that too, with a view to disclaim bail to applicant”. Nevertheless, HC had not allowed Parra to journey past J&Okay.
