How NIA court trashed Yasin Malik’s ‘Gandhian’ claims

The seriousness of the crimes increased as there were committed with the assistance and involvement of foreign powers and designated terrorists.

New Delhi, May 26: Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with a terror funding case. Malik had pleaded guilty before a special NIA court, following which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The special court judge, Praveen Singh made several observations before sentencing Malik to life. Here are five observations made by the judge.

Yasin Malik cannot invoke the Mahatma because unlike Malik, who continued to engage in violence despite giving up the gun, Gandhi called off the entire non-cooperation movement after one incident of violence at Chauri Chara.

The seriousness of the crimes increased as there were committed with the assistance and involvement of foreign powers and designated terrorists. They were committed behind the smokescreen of an alleged peaceful political movement.

The offences committed were of a very serious nature and intended to strike at the heart of the idea of India and to forcefully secede Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India.

Malik may have given up the gun in 1994, but never expressed any regret for the violence committed prior to 1994and still remained engaged in violent acts.

Due to the manner of the commission of the crimes and the sort of weaponry used, these would fail the test of the rarest of rare cases.