NIA seeks HC nod for Malik's virtual presence for hearing
New Delhi, August 2
The NIA on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking permission to produce virtually from jail Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik in a terror funding case in which it has sought death penalty for him.
Terror funding
The case pertains to terror funding in which death penalty has been sought for separatist leader Yasin Malik
The application is listed for hearing before a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anish Dayal on August 3. The high court had on May 29 issued a warrant for production of Malik, who is serving life term in the case in Tihar jail, on August 9 when NIA’s plea for enhancement of sentence is listed for hearing.
In an application seeking modification of the order, the investigating agency said Malik was a “very high risk prisoner” and it was imperative to not physically produce him in court in order to maintain public order and safety. It also said that as per an order passed by the Home Ministry, Malik cannot be “moved from the Tihar Jail” and shall “not be taken out of the jurisdiction of NCT of Delhi”.
Recently, the presence of the jailed separatist leader in the Supreme Court had created a flutter, prompting Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta to flag a “serious security lapse” to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
Malik apparently appeared before the top court on July 21 in connection with the CBI’s appeal against a September 20, 2022 order of a trial court in Jammu in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
