Jammu: A TADA court today said there was prima facie evidence to indict Yasin Malik, chief of banned JKLF, and six others for the 1990 killing of four unarmed Indian Air Force personnel in Kashmir. “The court has fixed March 16 as the date for framing of charges against all seven accused,” said CBI’s special public prosecutor Paviteer Singh Bhardwaj, adding the accused had been directed to be present in court on Monday. Singh, however, said Malik and another accused Shoukat Ahmed Bakshi were unlikely to appear in court as they were under arrest in other cases. Malik is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and Bakshi in a UP jail. The other accused to be indicted include Ali Mohammed Mir; Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, alias Mushtafa; Javed Ahmed Mir, alias Nalka; Nanaji, alias Saleem; and Javed Ahmed Zarger.
After hearing arguments, presiding officer of the Militant and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court Subash C Gupta observed the Central Bureau of Investigation appeared to have supported their allegations against the accused, both by documentary and oral evidence. Malik is under trial for the alleged killing of four IAF personnel and kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 1989-90. The CBI had charge-sheeted Malik in the TADA court on August 31, 1990, in connection with the case. Trial began on September 11, 2019, and the court had directed Malik and three others to appear in person on October 1. On October 1, the court allowed Malik’s appearance through video conferencing as Tihar authorities refused to present him in person on instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Malik was booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and shifted from Srinagar jail to Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu on March 7, 2019. Soon after, the Centre banned the JKLF under the anti-terror law. On April 10, 2019, Malik was shifted from Jammu to Tihar Jail.
Malik has been arrested by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) in a terror funding case. Facing trial for killing four IAF men
“The court has fixed March 16 as the date for framing of charges against all seven accused,” said CBI’s special public prosecutor Paviteer Singh Bhardwaj
He said Malik and another accused Shoukat Ahmed Bakshi were unlikely to appear in court as they were under arrest in other cases