Delhi High Court to hear NIA plea seeking death sentence to Yasin Malik today

Malik is beign produced in the court via video conferencing and not physically for security reasons.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will hear today a plea by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking death sentence to Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, convicted in a terror funding case. The division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anish Dayal will hear the matter following an appeal by the National Investigation seeking death sentence to Yasin Malik in the terror funding case.

During the hearing, Malik, the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, will be presented in the court through video conferencing from Tihar Jail where he is currently lodged. It can be recalled that during the last hearing in the case on Friday Aug 4, the Delhi High Court had directed the Superintendent of the Tihar jail to produce Yasin Malik through video conferencing only and not in person today.

The authorities at the Tihar Jail had submitted a plea before the Delhi High Court seeking to present Yasin Malik in the court through video conferencing, which the court had allowed on Aug 3. Earlier on May 29, the court issued a production warrant and ordered Malik to appear physically in the court. However, the jail authorities had said in the application that Malik has been kept in the category of high-risk prisoners.

Therefore it is necessary that he should not be produced physically in order to maintain public order and security, the jail authorities said. It is noteworthy that Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special NIA court in May last year in the terror funding case. Malik had pleaded guilty in the case and did not contest the charges against him.

While sentencing him to life imprisonment, Special Judge Praveen Singh had said that the offense did not satisfy the test of rarest of rare case held by the apex court. The judge also rejected Malik's argument that he followed the Gandhian principle of non-violence and was leading a peaceful and non-violent struggle.

In March last year, the court had framed charges against Malik and several other accused in the case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Others who were charged and claimed trial included Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahuddin, Er Rashid, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shahid-ul-Islam, Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Fantoosh, Naeem Khan and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate was involved.

While the court acquitted three people named Kamran Yusuf, Javed Ahmed Bhatt and Syeda Asiya Firdaus Andrabi.