CBI arrests man involved in kidnapping Mufti Sayeed’s daughter after 35 years
The arrested Shafat Ahmed Shangloo is alleged to be a close confidant of the separatist leader and chief of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Malik
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, who was involved in the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and was absconding for the past 35 years, the agency said on Monday.
Shangloo is alleged to be a close confidant of the separatist leader and chief of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Yasin Malik, against whom charges have already been framed in the kidnapping case. Malik is currently lodged at Tihar prison.
“CBI has arrested an absconder Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, wanted in a 35-year-old CBI case relating to the kidnapping of Dr Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, ex-home minister,” said an agency spokesperson in a statement.
Shangloo, the spokesperson added, “conspired with Yasin Malik and others in committing a crime under various sections of RPC (Ranbir Penal Code) and TADA (terrorist and disruptive activities) Act during the year 1989”.
The agency said Shangloo carried a reward of ₹10 lakh on him.
Officials, who didn’t want to be named, said he was arrested from J&K with the help of the local police from the Nishant area in Srinagar and will be produced before a special court in Jammu.
An officer said Shangloo allegedly worked as an office bearer of JKLF and was handling its finances.
Malik and others, in the first week of December 1989, allegedly conspired to kidnap Rubaiya, then undergoing resident rotatory internship training at Lal Ded Hospital at Srinagar, for ensuring the release of their five associates lodged in different jails.
According to CBI investigations, they borrowed a blue car from one Ghulam Mohammad and assembled at the house of another accused Mushtaq Ahmed Lone on December 8, 1989, and deliberated upon the plan to kidnap the home minister’s daughter when she is on her way back from the hospital to her residence at Nowgam Bye Pass, Srinagar.
The accused persons reached the hospital gate and split into smaller groups. It is alleged that Malik pointed towards her for enabling other accused persons to identify Rubaiya.
After her van was stopped, she was made to board a car, kept in captivity for five days - till five JKLF militants were released in exchange.
Rubaiya is listed as a prosecution witness in the case. During the court hearings, she had identified four other accused besides Malik of being involved in the crime.
The former home minister’s daughter currently lives in Tamil Nadu.
Malik has been convicted in a separate case, pertaining to terror funding.
