Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik, who is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar prison in a terror funding case, appeared virtually in a special court in Jammu on Wednesday after the Centre turned down his request to appear in person, a report said.
The court had on September 20 issued Malik’s production warrants to Tihar jail authorities after he sought to appear in person to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses in two cases related to the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel and the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, in 1989.
However, the Tihar prison authorities cited directions from the Union home ministry and told the court that Malik cannot be produced before it in person, Hindustan Times report. The court will hear the matter related to IAF personnel on November 23.
Senior advocate SK Bhat, who appeared on behalf of the prosecution, said the Tihar jail superintendent informed the court that Malik’s travel to Jammu was not possible.
He said one of the witnesses identified Malik and his other associates as the ones who held guns with malicious intent when the IAF personnel were killed.
The special court in March 2020 framed charges against Malik and six others for their alleged involvement in the killing of four unarmed IAF personnel in January 1990 at Rawalpora in Srinagar.
