New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India has directed the registrar general of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to ensure proper video-conferencing facilities at the special court in Jammu, which is hearing the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping and the 1990 Srinagar shootout cases involving jailed Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik and others.
The apex court also instructed the registrar general of the Delhi High Court to ensure adequate video-conferencing arrangements at Tihar Jail, where Malik is currently lodged in connection with a separate militancy-financing case.
A Bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan has requested status reports from both registrars by February 18, 2025, and scheduled the Central Bureau of Investigation’s plea for hearing on February 21, 2025. The CBI has sought to transfer the trials in the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping and Srinagar shootout cases from Jammu to New Delhi, citing security concerns and the logistical challenges of transporting Malik to the special court.
The cases include the January 25, 1990 killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in Srinagar and the December 8, 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Malik, the chief of the banned JKLF, is a prime accused in both cases and is currently facing trial.
In its plea, the CBI contended that Malik poses a significant threat to national security and should not be transported outside Tihar Jail.
Rubaiya Sayeed, now residing in Tamil Nadu, was freed five days after her abduction in 1989 when the then BJP-backed V.P. Singh government at the Centre agreed to release five militants in exchange for her. She is a key prosecution witness in the case, which the CBI took over in the early 1990s.
Muhammad Yasin Malik has been serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail since May 2023 after being convicted in a militant-funding case by a special National Investigation Agency court. [KNT]
