HC rejects Malik’s plea to transfer 30-year old cases

Justice Sanjay Gupta of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik to transfer the trial of 30-year-old cases against him from Jammu to Srinagar.

The judgment cleared the decks for Malik’s trial in Jammu intwo old cases relating to gunning down of Indian Air Force personnel and theRubiya Sayeed kidnapping.

   

The Justice Gupta also vacated an order by a single bench ofthe High Court which had stayed trial against Malik in 1995, besides observingthat the October 25, 2008 order of special TADA court of Jammu allowing Malik’spetition for shifting trial to Srinagar was not correct.

“…From bare perusal of contents of petitions andrelief sought therein, one can definitely come to conclusion that petitioners(Malik) have sought transfer of their cases from designated court Jammu toadditional court at Srinagar, which is not permissible under law,” JusticeGupta said in his order.

Malik is presently lodged at Tihar jail in New Delhi afterbeing arrested by the NIA in connection with a case related to militant andseparatist funding.

The two cases relate to the killing of IAF officers on 25January, 1990 in the outskirts of Srinagar city and the kidnapping of thedaughter of then Union Home Minister late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in 1989. Twochargesheets were filed by the CBI in August and September 1990 against Malikbefore the designated TADA court in Jammu.

In 1995, he was granted a stay on trial by a single bench ofthe Jammu and Kashmir High Court as there was no TADA court in Srinagar.

In 2008, Malik approached the special court saying that thetrial could be shifted to Srinagar as he was facing lot of problems of securityin view of the Amarnath land row.

The CBI counsel Monika Kohli argued before the High Courtthat the agency had opposed transfer of cases to Srinagar which was rejected.She also informed the court that petitions challenging the order of TADA courtwere filed with the High Court but the same could not be heard so far.

During the pendency of trial in this case as well, anapplication was filed by the accused persons seeking transfer of the case tothe designated TADA court at Srinagar. The CBI filed objections and opposed theapplication, which was rejected by the order dated April 20, 2009.

Highlighting the CBI objections, Kohli also informed JusticeGupta that the TADA court in Srinagar had been abolished and the designatedcourt in Jammu was given jurisdiction throughout the state with headquarters atJammu in May 1990.

Rejecting the argument of Malik’s counsel Zaffar Shah as”not tenable”, the court vacated the stay granted by the single benchas also the order of TADA court of 2008.

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