PDP Leader’s Request to Travel Abroad and Apply for a Yale University Peace Fellowship is Rejected by the NIA Court

Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra’s plea to go to the United States to enrol in Yale University’s three-month Peace Fellowship Programme was denied by the court of special judge established under the NIA Act on Wednesday.

According to the court, the petitioner has been charged with serious violations under the UAP Act and Sections 120-B, 121, 121-A, and 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, which are punishable by death or life in prison.

The petitioner is accused by the court of having strong contacts to “foreign and local terrorists as well as that he is funding, aiding and supporting terrorist activities, terrorist organisations.”

“The investigating agency has already raised the issue with the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, and a formal assistance request (MLAT) has been sent to the USA. One must keep in mind that the applicant has submitted this application only to get authorization to go to the USA for the purpose of the Peace Fellowship 2023, to which the MLAT request has been sent.

The court ruled that the extra public prosecutor’s contention that the applicant could attempt to influence the gathering of evidence in the USA and that there are risks of his departing the nation merited consideration.

The applicant had previously filed a request with the court to go to Mumbai since his father had been given a cancer diagnosis, and on April 21, 2023, the court had granted him permission on the basis of humanitarian considerations to bring his father to the TATA Memorial Centre in Mumbai. “However, the facts of the present application are totally different because not only will the case’s trial, which is currently at the evidence stage, be hampered, but there are also genuine concerns that the applicant may attempt to flee the country and obstruct the gathering of evidence in the USA, for which an MLAT request has been sent through the government of India.

The application is denied, the court said, citing these factors.

Parra had submitted a request to the court asking for permission to leave the station to attend the Yale University Peace Fellowship Programme beginning in September 2023 in the United States of America. When he was granted bail on May 25, 2022, he asked for a directive to release his passport, which is still in police possession and in line with High Court instructions. Parra requested that the chance to seek this great opportunity overseas should be given to him.

The NIA argued that the Yale University Peace Fellowship Program’s core values are in direct conflict with and inimical to those of the accused. “The fellowship is merely a means which has been managed by the applicant principally to obstruct and disrupt the ongoing lawful ‘further investigation’ and also to obstruct the proper trial of the case; that the allegations against the applicant accused are not only serious but also numerous.”

On August 5, 2019, the day the government repealed Article 370, Parra was arrested. He was first detained in accordance with CrPC section 107. He was then placed under house arrest and later freed.

Parra was detained on terrorism-related allegations by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on November 25, 2020.

He was granted bail in the case by the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) special court on January 9, 2021. But shortly after being freed, the Counter Intelligence (CIK) unit of the Jammu and Kashmir police charged him once again under the UAPA. He was detained at the Joint Interrogation Centre in Kashmir for many months before being transferred to Central Jail Srinagar.

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court granted Parra bail on May 25, 2022, in a terror-related case after 18 months, stating that the information obtained by the prosecution is “too sketchy” to deny him the relief.

Parra was instructed by the High Court in its judgement not to leave the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir without the prior approval of the trial court and to appear before the investigating officer as and when needed.

He was selected to be the first Yale Peace Fellow at Yale’s International Leadership Centre in April of this year.