NEW DELHI, Apr 22:
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that taking names of senior politicians and bureaucrats does not absolve separatist leader Yasin Malik or negate his links with militants like Hafiz Saeed.
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The NIA filed a rejoinder to Malik’s reply to its plea for enhancing his life sentence in a terror-funding case to death penalty and asserted that the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief was “well connected with multiple terrorist organizations and with supporters of the terrorist organization LeT” and that he dropped names of senior politicians, media personnel, foreign delegates and bureaucrats to gain popularity and draw public sympathy.
The NIA stated that Mailk cannot be permitted to “revisit” the matter when the charges against him have already culminated into his conviction and ample opportunity was given to him to raise objections.
A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravidner Dudeja took the NIA’s rejoinder on record and listed the agency’s appeal for hearing on July 21.
The bench also told Malik, who was virtually appearing from Tihar jail, that a copy of the rejoinder would be supplied to him through the jail authorities.
In his reply filed to the NIA’s appeal, Malik had earlier said that he spent nearly three decades as a key figure in a state-sanctioned “backchannel” mechanism, working with a succession of prime ministers, intelligence chiefs, and even business tycoons to foster peace in Jammu and Kashmir.
In an 85-page affidavit, Malik shared details about his journey -“ from his school days to links with terrorists and meetings with political leaders.
“The convict himself has admitted that he was the commander-in-chief of JKLF. Rest of the matters (in the reply) related to taking names of senior politicians, media personnel, foreign delegates and bureaucrats is only for the sake of gaining popularity and to draw sympathy of the public and has no bearing with the merit of the instant case. It is most respectfully submitted that the mere mention of names of senior politicians and senior bureaucrats does not negate the fact that the convicted accused had linkages with militant Hafiz Saeed and other militants,” the NIA said in its rejoinder.
“Yasin Malik has admitted that he was the commander-in-chief of JKLF and he has himself admitted the fact that he was having connection with Sayeed Salauddin, chief of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen,” it added.
The NIA, in the rejoinder, also took exception to Malik calling himself a “good sacrificial goat”, stating that such statements were unfair to the judicial process.
Asserting that the case against Malik was based on evidence and not hearsay or “emotional narrations”, the NIA said there was material demonstrating that he was in “contact with the top leadership of Pakistan, including the Prime Minister, the President, senators of the Pakistani Senate, and the chief ministers of all provinces, and was using such contacts to propagate narratives against India and to further the secessionist agenda in Jammu & Kashmir”.
The agency further said Malik’s averments on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits during the 1990s and his sympathy towards them was entirely irrelevant to the instant case.
Similarly, his narratives concerning deceased militant Burhan Wani, his encounter by law enforcement agencies and the subsequent disturbances in law and order was also entirely immaterial, the agency added. (PTI)
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