Malik gets life in prison in terror funding case
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday sentenced Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik to life imprisonment for waging war against the State, saying that his crimes struck at the heart of the idea of India but holding that they didn’t fall under the “rarest of rare” category.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) demanded the death penalty for Malik, who pled guilty to his crimes on May 10, but the court took a more lenient view. Under Section 121 (waging war against the State) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the minimum punishment is life imprisonment while the maximum is death.
NIA judge Praveen Singh said waging war against the State or abetting it was a serious crime, but the death penalty should be awarded in exceptional cases where the crime shocks the collective consciousness of the society and is committed with unmatched cruelty and in a gruesome manner.
“The manner of the commission of crime, the kind of weapons used in the crime lead me to a conclusion that the crime in question would fail the test of rarest of rare cases as laid down by the Supreme Court,” the judge said. NIA argued that the court should consider that Malik was responsible for the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, but the judge rejected the argument. “I find that as this issue is neither before this court, nor has been adjudicated upon and thus the court cannot allow itself to be swayed by this argument,” the court said in its 20-page order.
The court awarded Malik life imprisonment under Section 121 of the IPC and Section 17 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and imposed a fine of ₹10.65 lakh on the convict under various sections.
He was awarded 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment under sections 120B IPC, 121A of the IPC and sections 15, 18 and 20 under UAPA. Additionally, he was also sentenced to five years imprisonment for sections 38 and 39 of UAPA. All the sentences will run concurrently.
“These crimes were intended to strike at the heart of the idea of India and intended to forcefully secede J&K from UOI. The crime becomes more serious as it was committed with the assistance of foreign powers and designated terrorists,” the judge said.
1988-89: Yasin Malik takes to arms under JKLF for freedom of Jammu and Kashmir
August 1990: Malik arrested as commander-in-chief of JKLF; approached by many officials, civil society members, intellectuals to shun violence during his four-year jail period May 1994: Malik released; announces unilateral ceasefire, which leads to split in the JKLF, but the two factions again merge in 2005
2000: PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiates Ramzan ceasefire and dialogue process; Malik lends support
2002: Malik starts a signature campaign for 'peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue'.
2006: Meets PM Manmohan Singh in Delhi and presents 1.5 million signatures of J&K people Feb 2009: Marries Pakistan-based artist Mushaal Mullick
2010: An all-party parliamentary delegation visits Kashmir and meets Malik
Feb 2019: Malik gets arrested by NIA in terror-funding case 2019: TADA court in Jammu starts trial in the case of his alleged role in kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 1989, and killing of four IAF officials in 1990 March 2020: TADA court frames charges against Malik and six others in murder of four IAF officials
May 2022: Malik gets life imprisonment in terror-funding case