The Calcutta High Court has granted bail to a Bangladeshi national arrested in 2016 on suspicion of being associated with the banned terrorist organization Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

A division bench of Judges Joymalya Bagchi and Gaurang Kanth granted the bail application made by Abdul Kalim alias Azad.

It was stated that the petitioner had been in detention for over eight years and there was no possibility that the trial would end soon.

The state prosecutor submitted that the petitioner was convicted in the 2014 Khagragarh blast case, an investigation was conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and he was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. Links have reportedly been established between the JMB and the Khagragarh blast.

The petitioner’s lawyer argued that the eight-year sentence was over and there was no reason for the state authorities to continue detaining the petitioner in the present case.

Although the court noted that the allegations of association with a proscribed terrorist organization were serious in nature, it also stated that no overt acts had been attributed to the petitioner and that he had been convicted on the basis of ‘an uncorroborated statement from a co-accused.

It was also noted that since he had already served his eight-year sentence, even if he had been convicted in the present case, the two sentences would have been concurrent.

Accordingly, the court granted bail to the petitioner.

Case: ABDUL KALIM @ AZAD @ ABDUL KALAM VS STATE OF WEST BENGAL

File no: CRM (DB)/3400/2024

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Cal) 236