Supreme Court Grants Bail to Two Muslim Men After Nearly 12 Years in UAPA Case
The Court says prolonged imprisonment without the conclusion of trial is a serious violation of the constitutional right to personal liberty.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has granted bail to two Muslim men accused of having links with the banned organisation Indian Mujahideen, holding that their continued imprisonment for nearly 12 years without the completion of trial amounted to a serious violation of their fundamental right to personal liberty.
A Bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta ordered the release of Mohd Saquib Ansari and Waqar Azhar, citing the extraordinary delay in the proceedings and the lack of any immediate prospect of the trial concluding.
The Court observed that keeping the two accused in custody for such a prolonged period was inconsistent with the protection of personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The case originated from an FIR registered by the Delhi Police in November 2011 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. According to the prosecution, a Pakistani national arrested in the case disclosed information about a Rajasthan based module of the Indian Mujahideen that was allegedly planning terror activities in and around Delhi.
Investigators later claimed to have recovered explosives and bomb making materials in 2014 from locations linked to Ansari in Jodhpur and Azhar in Jaipur. These recoveries resulted in two additional criminal cases being registered in Rajasthan.
Both men were arrested in all three cases in 2014 and have remained in custody since then. In one of the Rajasthan cases, they were convicted by a trial court in 2021, but the Rajasthan High Court later suspended their sentences. They were also granted bail in the second Rajasthan case, leaving the Delhi UAPA case as the only reason for their continued detention.
Before the Supreme Court, the petitioners argued that they had spent almost 12 years in prison while the prosecution had failed to complete the trial.
After examining the case records through the eCourts portal, the Bench found that the prosecution had listed 197 witnesses, but only 68 had been examined so far. The Court also noted that since January 2025, only two witnesses had been examined, with one of them only partially completing testimony.
The Bench further observed that one of the co accused had already been granted bail and concluded that there was no realistic possibility of the trial ending in the near future. It ruled that continued detention would amount to an unjustified deprivation of personal liberty.
The Supreme Court directed that Ansari and Azhar be released on bail subject to the conditions imposed by the trial court. It also clarified that its observations were limited to deciding the bail applications and would not affect the final outcome of the trial.