The Supreme Court of India has postponed the hearing of a plea by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking to transfer the trial of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik from Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi. The new date set for the hearing is April 4, after a bench consisting of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan granted an adjournment due to the unavailability of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
During the session, Yasin Malik participated via video-conferencing from jail and requested the court to reschedule the hearing after Ramzan, a request to which the bench acceded.
The CBI’s plea involves the transfer of two significant cases—the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and the 1990 shootout in Srinagar where four Indian Air Force personnel were killed. These cases have long been a point of contention, with Malik and several co-accused facing charges.
Previously, on December 18, the Supreme Court directed six accused to respond within two weeks to the CBI’s transfer plea. Additionally, the court has taken steps to ensure that the Jammu sessions court is equipped with adequate video-conferencing facilities to handle proceedings, following directives to the registrar general of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
The request to transfer the trials to New Delhi stems from security concerns and the high-profile nature of the cases. The CBI argues that Malik, who is currently serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail following a May 2023 conviction in a terror-funding case by a special NIA court, poses a national security threat. This status complicates the logistics of transporting him for trials outside the Tihar jail premises.
Rubaiya Sayeed, the kidnapping victim who was released in exchange for five terrorists during the tenure of the then BJP-backed VP Singh government, is now living in Tamil Nadu and is a key prosecution witness in the case, which the CBI took over in the early 1990s.
