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Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case: Witness identifies Yasin Malik, 2 other accused
The eyewitness, who identified Yasin Malik through virtual mode, also identified Ali Mohammad Mir and Mohammad Zaman before the court. Ali Mohammad Mir and Mohammad Zaman had appeared in person before the court.
An eyewitness in the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case on Friday identified JKLF terrorist-turned-separatist Yasin Malik and two other accused before a special TADA court here.
Additional advocate general Monika Kohli, said, “Today one of the witnesses (witness number 13) had come to the court and recorded his statement. He was also cross-examined. The eyewitness identified Yasin Malik, Ali Mohammad Mir and Mohammad Zaman.”
The next date of the hearing has been fixed for March 31, she added.
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The eyewitness corroborated that he had gone to Sopore in Baramulla district of north Kashmir at the time of the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed and identified the place and persons associated with the abduction.
Yasin Malik, who is serving life imprisonment in a terror-funding case, appeared via video-conferencing from Tihar jail.
The eyewitness, who identified Malik through virtual mode, also identified Ali Mohammad Mir and Mohammad Zaman before the court. Ali Mohammad Mir and Mohammad Zaman had appeared in person before the court.
According to the prosecution of two accused, Ali Mohammad Mir and Mohammad Zaman, the former had taken Rubaiya Sayeed in his vehicle to Sopore from Srinagar and kept her in the Khan guest house on the fateful day of her kidnapping.
On Friday, Rubaiya did not appear for the hearing as her exemption application had earlier been approved by the court.
During the previous hearing on July 15, Rubaiya had identified five accused, including Malik. Rubaiya was abducted from near Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar on December 8, 1989.
She was freed five days later after the then VP Singh government, supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party, at the Centre released five terrorists in exchange.
Now living in Tamil Nadu, Rubaiya is listed as a prosecution witness by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the case in early 1990s.
Malik was arrested in early 2019 in connection with the 2017 terror-financing case registered by the National Investogation Agency.
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Malik had observed a 10-day hunger strike in July last year after the Centre did not respond to his plea to physically appear in the Jammu court, which was hearing the abduction case.
On January 11, 2021, the TADA court had ordered that the charges be framed against Yasin and nine others, including Ali Mohamad Mir, Mohammad Zaman Mir, Iqbal Ahmad Gandroo, Javed Ahmad Mir, Mohammad Rafiq Pahloo alias Nana Ji alias Saleem, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, Wajahat Bashir, Mehraj-ud-Din Sheikh and Showkat Ahmad Bakshi.
