E-Paper
Yasin Malik refuses legal aide, wants physical appearance for court hearing
After Yasin Malik turned down the offer of legal aid, the special court in Jammu asked the separatist leader to submit his stand in writing on the next date of hearing in the third week of September.
Jailed separatist leader Yasin Malik on Monday refused to seek legal aide for hearing in the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in 1990 and reiterated his demand for his physical appearance in the case.
A PTI report said Malik appeared for the hearing via video conference from Delhi's Tihar Jail where he is currently lodged, where the 56-year-old chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front is lodged in a terror-funding case.
After Malik turned down the offer of legal aid, the special court in Jammu asked him to submit his stand in writing on the next date of hearing in the third week of September, CBI counsel Monika Kohli said.
The court said there were clear directions from the high court for producing the accused in all cases through video conferencing.
Hunger strike
Malik had observed a 10-day hunger strike from July 22 after the Centre did not respond to his plea for allowing him to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case in which he is an accused.
Kohli is the chief prosecutor in the two key cases against Malik — the 1989 abduction of Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the killing of four IAF personnel -- which had taken place during the raging militancy in Kashmir Valley.
Cases aga
Charges were framed against Malik, Ali Mohammed Mir, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi alias Mustafa, Javed Ahmed Mir alias 'Nalka', Showkat Ahmed Bakshi, Javed Ahmed Zargar and Nanaji in March 2020 in the case of killing of the IAF personnel.
All of them were charged for murder and attempt to murder under sections of the now-defunct Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
The IAS officers were killed on January 25, 1990 on the outskirts of Srinagar city. According to the CBI, the IAF personnel were fired upon by terrorists in which 40 of them, including a woman, received serious injuries and four IAF personnel were killed on the spot.
Recently, the CBI issued summons on prime witness Rubaiya Sayeed, who had been kidnapped in December 1989, for recording her statement. This was for the first time in 33 years that she was appearing before the court.
During the trial, Sayeed identified Malik as one of the kidnappers. Malik had recently demanded that he be allowed to appear physically before the Jammu court for cross-questioning the prosecution witnesses in the case.
(With agency inputs)
