Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik on Wednesday requested a special court in Jammu that he be allowed to physically appear before it in two separate cases of abduction and murder, The Indian Express reported.
Malik is facing trial before a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court for the killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in Srinagar in January 1990. He is also facing trial in a case related to the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in December 1989. The separatist leader is already serving a life sentence in a terror funding case.
Malik, the chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, said he wanted to be physically present in the court when the judge was recording the statement of a prosecution witness.
However, the separatist leader was produced before the court through video conferencing from Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Malik complained of poor audio quality when the judge was recording the witness’ statement. “You are recording the statement of prosecution witnesses and leave me aside…you ask the jail staff whether anything is audible to them,” he said.
Malik told the court that he had written to the government on July 9 demanding that he should be allowed to appear physically so that he can cross-examine the witnesses in person. He added that he would go on an indefinite hunger strike from July 22 if his application was rejected.
Special Public Prosecutor Monika Kohli said that two witnesses were examined on Wednesday, the Hindustan Times reported. The case will be heard next on August 22, she added.
Kohli added that hearings in the abduction case will take place on July 14 and 15. “We cannot say whether he will appear in-person or via virtual or in-person mode,” she said. However, the hearing will reportedly take place online.
In 1989, Rubaiya Sayeed was freed in exchange for the release of five members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front by the Indian government. A chargesheet against 22 accused, including Malik, was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in September 1990 before the designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act court in Jammu.
In the Indian Air Force personnel’s murder case, the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed a chargesheet against Malik and six others.
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