Recently, in the matter of Mohd. Mustaqeem vs. State Of U.P. Thru. Nia, the Allahabad Court has granted Bail to two alleged terrorists who were arrested last year in connection with a conspiracy to carry out a bombing pressure Cooker in Lucknow.

Earlier, the National Investigation Agency rejected their bail application. The division bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masood and Justice Om Prakash Shukla passed the bail order. The plea was moved by the accused Mohd. Mustaqeem and Mohammad Shakeel. 

The Court noted that both the accused are in jail for the past year and eight months and the trial in the case has begun. In July 2021, the Anti-Terrorist Squad has arrested two terrorists belonging to Operation Ansar Gajwatul Hind organization from Lucknow namely Minhaj and Bashiruddin. Both were accused to carry out a pressure cooker bomb attack in Lucknow on August 15, 2021.

Later, both of them took the names of the present accused Mohd. Mustaqeem and Mohammad Shakeel. Thereafter, both of them were arrested in July 2021 and were booked under various terror charges. When an investigation was done the Chargesheet was submitted before the special court.

Later,  an examination of the entire material collected during the course of the investigation, prima facie, charges under Section 120B IPC and Section 25 (1B)(a) Arms Act were framed against them. When National Investigation Agency rejected their bail application, the approached High Court, argued that once the purpose of investigation with the collection of relevant material has been served, the curtailment of liberty of the appellants any further, that too in a situation where the trial is to take a long time for the list of witnesses being lengthy, the prolonged incarceration is hit by Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

On the Contrary, the Counsel for the National Investigation Agency argued that the trial court has rightly rejected the bail application of the appellants on appreciation of the prima facie evidence against them.

The Allahabad High Court directed that they be released on bail on each of them furnishing a bail bond and two sureties in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned.