SC directs Yasin Malik to virtually appear in Jammu court from Tihar on March 7

The Supreme Court on Friday directed jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik to appear in a Jammu court from Tihar Jail through video-conferencing on March 7.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the Jammu sessions court was “well-equipped” with the video-conferencing system enabling the virtual examination.

The CBI sought the transfer of the trials in the 1989 case of the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former union minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and the 1990 Srinagar shootout case, from Jammu to New Delhi.

During the hearing, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, informed the court that as per the report filed by the registrar general of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, the video-conferencing system was working properly in the Jammu court.

Mehta said it appeared all the accused were working in tandem to delay the trial while pointing out that Malik refused to engage a lawyer and others were opposing the transfer of trial.

The top court previously directed the Registrar General of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to ensure proper video-conferencing facilities at the Jammu special court while hearing two cases against Malik and others.

The top court on December 18, last year, gave six accused two weeks to respond to the CBI’s plea to transfer the trial of the cases.

The plea is over the two cases in which four Indian Air Force personnel were killed on January 25, 1990 in Srinagar and the abduction which took place on December 8, 1989.

Malik, chief of the proscribed JKLF, is facing trial in both cases.

The top court was hearing a CBI plea against the September 20, 2022, order of a Jammu trial court directing Malik, serving a life term in Tihar jail, to be produced before it physically to cross-examine prosecution witnesses in the abduction case.

The CBI said Malik was a threat to national security and couldn’t be allowed to be taken outside the Tihar jail premises.

Rubaiya, who was freed five days after her abduction when the then BJP-backed V P Singh government at the Centre released five terrorists in exchange, now lives in Tamil Nadu. She is a prosecution witness for the CBI, which took over the case in early 1990s.

Malik has been lodged in Tihar jail after he was sentenced by a special NIA court in May 2023 in a terror-funding case.