Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik seeking transfer of the trial of two TADA cases against him to Srinagar.
Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta had reserved the judgement on Malik’s appeal on April 8. Three senior advocates, Zafar Ahmad Shah, Zafar Qureshi and Ghulam Qadir Bhat, appeared for Malik while the CBI plea opposing the transfer of the trial to Srinagar was represented by advocate Monika Kohli.
Malik is an accused in two cases being tried against him in the special TADA court in Jammu. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a challan against Malik in the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then union Home Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, in Srinagar on December 8, 1989.
The other case filed against Malik pertains to the killings of four Indian Air Force officials including Sq Leader Ravi Khanna, Corporals D.B. Singh and Uday Shankar and Airman Azad Ahmad when they were waiting for a bus on January 24, 1990 in Rawalpora in Srinagar.
The CBI lawyer argued in the High Court that the CBI had completed the investigation and submitted the challans in both these cases in the designated court in 1990 in Srinagar but even the preliminary process of framing the charges had not been completed by the Srinagar court after 29 years.
Kohli also argued that the convenience of the accused could not be taken as paramount for consideration in cases of such serious nature. Malik is presently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail after he was shifted from Jammu’s Kot Balwal jail by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the terror funding case being investigated by the agency. A court in Delhi has remanded Malik to judicial custody till May 23.
