TADA court frames charges against Yasin Malik, 9 others
JAMMU: A special court on Monday ordered that charges be framed against separatist leader Yasin Malik and nine others for their alleged role in the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in 1989.
Special TADA court judge Sunit Gupta ordered that charges be framed against Yasin Malik, Ali Mohamad Mir, Mohammad Zaman Mir, Iqbal Ahmad Gandroo, Javed Ahmad Mir, Mohammad Rafiq Pahloo alias Nana Ji alia Saleem, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, Wajahat Bashir, Mehraj-ud-Din Sheikh and Showkat Ahmad Bakshi.
Rubaiya Sayeed, the younger sister of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, was kidnapped by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front from Nowgam in Kashmir on December 8, 1989. She was released on December 13.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the accused had abducted Rubaiya Sayeed to force the government to release five militants.
Yasin Malik, who shunned terrorism to join politics in 1994, has been accused of playing a key role in the kidnapping that he and his associates allegedly executed.
The court, after hearing public prosecutor Vijay Kumar Dogra and advocate MA Goni (both representing CBI) and the confessional statements of other accused, observed that sufficient grounds existed to presume that all the accused had committed offences. “Hence, charges are required to be framed against each of the accused persons, separately,” the court stated.
In March last year, a court under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, or TADA, had also framed charges against Yasin Malik and six others for their alleged involvement in the killing of four unarmed Indian Air Force (IAF) officials in 1990 in Kashmir.
Malik is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.