Solicitor General Tushar Mehta compared JKLF leader Yasin Malik to Osama bin Laden while arguing on behalf of the National Investigation Agency in Delhi High Court. The NIA is seeking the death penalty for the Kashmiri leader who is currently serving life imprisonment in a terror funding case.
The Solicitor General said that Malik should not be given a life term instead of a death sentence just because he pleaded guilty. He then added that such tactics would even allow Osama bin Laden to avoid a death sentence by pleading guilty and not going through a trial.
The court responded that there could be no comparison between Malik and Laden as the latter never faced trial.
The trial court, which had rejected the NIA's plea for capital punishment, had said the crimes committed by Malik struck at the "heart of the idea of India" and were intended to forcefully secede Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India. It had, however, noted that the case was not the “rarest of rare”, warranting the death penalty.
The maximum punishment for such an offence is the death penalty.
The life term was awarded for two offences -- section 121 and section 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act) of the UAPA.
According to the Supreme Court, life imprisonment means incarceration till the last breath unless the sentence is commuted by the authorities.
(with PTI inputs)