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Supreme Court on Yasin Malik's case: ‘Even Ajmal Kasab was given fair trial’
The SC said that it could order for the trial to take place inside the premises of the Tihar Jail and ask the judge to travel to Delhi for the proceedings.
The Supreme Court on Thursday indicated it might set up a courtroom inside Delhi's Tihar jail for Jammu and Kashmir separatist leader Yasin Malik in a kidnapping case.
The top court also remarked that "Even Ajmal Kasab was given a fair trial in our country."
The top court bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih was hearing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea against a September 2022 order of a Jammu-based Special TADA court.
Malik is currently serving a life term in Tihar jail. He was directed to be produced before the trial court in person for cross-examining the prosecution witnesses in the 1989 kidnapping case of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter, Rubaiya Sayeed.
Rubaiya was abducted near Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar on December 8, 1989 and freed five days later after the then BJP-backed V P Singh government at the Centre released five terrorists in exchange.
“How will cross-examination be done online? There is hardly any connectivity in Jammu... In our country, a fair trial was given even to Ajmal Kasab and legal assistance was given to him in the high court,” PTI quoted the bench as saying.
The top court told the CBI counsel, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, to take instructions on the total number of witnesses in this case.
Malik ‘playing tricks’
During the hearing, the solicitor general highlighted security concerns and said that Malik could not be taken to Jammu for trial, the PTI report added.
He accused Malik of “playing tricks” for having asked to appear personally and not engaging a lawyer. He also showed a purported photograph of Malik with 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.
The top court said it could order trial to take place inside the jail besides asking the judge to come to the national capital for the proceedings. The bench, however, noted all the accused persons in the matter had to be heard before it passes an order.
Mehta said Malik physically appearing in the Supreme Court had raised security concerns previously. The bench said Malik could be allowed to appear virtually in the apex court proceedings and posted the matter on November 28.
