Supreme Court orders video conferencing for high-profile Yasin Malik trials

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the registrar general of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to ensure proper video conferencing facilities at the special court in Jammu hearing two high-profile cases involving Yasin Malik, the jailed chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The cases pertain to the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed and the 1990 Srinagar shootout.

Additionally, the apex court instructed the registrar general of the Delhi High Court to ensure similar arrangements at Tihar Jail, where Malik is currently serving a life sentence in a terror financing case. Both registrars have been asked to submit status reports by February 18, with the matter scheduled for hearing on February 21.

A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan was considering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea to transfer the trials from Jammu to New Delhi to avoid the need for Malik's physical presence in the Jammu court. The CBI has raised concerns about national security, stating that Malik, who faces trial in both cases, should not be transported outside Tihar Jail premises.

The Rubaiya Sayeed case involves her abduction on December 8, 1989, while she was the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Her release was secured after the government, led by Prime Minister V.P. Singh and supported by the BJP, agreed to release five terrorists in exchange. Sayeed, now residing in Tamil Nadu, is a key prosecution witness in the case.

The second case concerns the killing of four Indian Air Force personnel on January 25, 1990, in Srinagar. The Jammu trial court had previously ordered Malik's physical production to cross-examine witnesses in the Sayeed case, which the CBI has challenged.

Malik has been in Tihar Jail since May 2023, following his conviction in a terror funding case by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court.