Srinagar- The CBI was put on the back foot on Tuesday after a special TADA court released Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, just a day after his arrest in the 1989 kidnapping case of Rubaiyya Sayeed, daughter of the then home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

Shangloo was produced before the designated court, where the CBI sought his judicial custody, insisting he was wanted in the decades-old case. His lawyers, Anil Raina, Suhail Dar and Yogesh Bakshi, argued that the agency had never shown him as an accused and pointed to the CBI chargesheet, which clearly stated that no case was made out against him.

Speaking to reporters, Raina and Dar said the court found the CBI's claims“not true” and ordered Shangloo's release.

Shangloo told reporters he was a businessman who had freely travelled between Kashmir and Delhi for years, stressing that he had never been involved in any unlawful activity. He also said he was issued a passport in Srinagar in 2016 after full police verification.

When asked about the CBI's assertion that he was an absconding accused carrying a reward of ten lakh rupees, his lawyers dismissed it as a“media trial”, saying the facts were settled in the courtroom.

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