TADA court orders Yasin Malik's physical presence in 1989 kidnapping case

Jammu, Sep 21: A special court on Wednesday ordered a production warrant for Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Yasin Malik to Tihar jail in connection with the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case.

As per CBI lawyer Monika Kohli, the TADA court has ordered physical presence before it on October 20.

"Yasin Malik will be called for cross-examination on October 20. The court has ordered production warrants to Tihar jail for Yasin Malik. He'll be physically present for the hearing, as per his demands," ANI quoted the lawyer as saying.

Kohli further said that Rubaiya Sayeed's (PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti's sister) cross-examination was done in the court today.

"Rubaiya Sayeed (PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti's sister) was presented today at TADA court, Jammu. Her cross-examination was done, along with the rest of the accused. Only Yasin Malik's cross-examination was left," she said.

Rubaiya, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was abducted near Lal Ded Hospital on December 8, 1989 and freed from captivity five days later on December 13 after the then V P Singh government, supported by the BJP at the Centre, released the five terrorists in exchange.

On July 15, Rubaiya Sayeed, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's daughter, appeared before a special CBI court and identified JKLF chief and three others as her abductors. "This is the person and his name is Yasin Malik. He was the man who threatened me that he will drag me out of the minibus if I refused to follow their diktat," PTI had quoted Rubaiya as saying in the court.

The case had gone into virtual cold storage and was revived after Malik was picked up by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019 on charges of terror funding.

In January last year, the CBI, with help from special public prosecutors Monika Kohli and S K Bhat, framed charges against 10 people, including Malik, in the Rubaiya kidnapping case that turned out to be a turning point in the Valley's volatile history. The release of the five JKLF members was seen as a morale booster for terror groups, which had started raising their heads at the time.

Other charged in the case are Ali Mohammed Mir, Mohammed Zaman Mir, Iqbal Ahmad Gandroo, Javed Ahmad Mir, Mohammedd Rafiq Pahloo, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, Wajahat Bashir, Mehraj-ud-Din Sheikh and Showkat Ahmad Bakshi.

During the investigation, accused Ali Mohammad Mir, Zaman Mir and Iqbal Gandroo voluntarily confessed before a magistrate about his role in the Rubaiya kidnapping.Besides, four others made confessional statements before CBI's Superintendent of Police.

The JKLF chief is at present lodged in the high-security Tihar Jail after he was sentenced by a special NIA court in Delhi in May. He was arrested in early 2019 in connection with the 2017 terror-funding case registered by NIA.