NIA requests Delhi HC to hold in-camera hearing on plea seeking death penalty for Yasin Malik

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday asked the Delhi High Court for in-camera proceedings while hearing the agency’s appeal seeking death penalty for Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik in the 2017 terror funding case.

A bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain said the plea would be considered after NIA’s counsel, special public prosecutor Akshai Malik, requested to conduct the proceedings in-camera and provide a private virtual link.

Yasin Malik, who appeared through video conferencing from the Tihar jail, said he was subjected to psychological torture because of the protracted delay of around three years in deciding the appeal.

The bench has posted the matter to January 28 for hearing the arguments.

In September, Yasin Malik, in an 85-page affidavit submitted before the high court, claimed that he spent nearly three decades as a key figure in a state-sanctioned “backchannel” mechanism, working with a succession of prime ministers, intelligence chiefs and even business tycoons to foster peace in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief is lodged in the Tihar jail where he is serving a life term in the case.

On May 24, 2022, a trial court sentenced the separatist leader to life imprisonment after holding him guilty for offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and IPC.

He had pleaded guilty to the charges, including those under the UAPA, and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Appealing against the sentence, NIA emphasised that a terrorist cannot be sentenced life term only because he has pleaded guilty and chosen not to go through trial.

While seeking enhancement of the sentence to death penalty, the agency said if such dreaded terrorists are not given capital punishment on account of pleading guilty, there would be complete erosion of the sentencing policy and terrorists would have a way out to avoid death sentence.