CBI plea for transfer of terror cases: SC allows 6 accused time to respond

New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave two weeks to six accused persons to respond to a CBI plea seeking transfer of two terror cases from Jammu to New Delhi wherein banned JKLF chief Yasin Malik is also facing trial.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Manmohan took note of the fact that the six accused did not file their replies to the CBI plea and asked them to do the needful in two weeks. The top court listed the matter on January 20, 2025.

While one case relates to the killing of four Indian Air Force personnel on January 25, 1990 in a shootout in Srinagar, the other pertains to the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, on December 8, 1989.

While Malik has filed his response, six of remaining 10 accused are yet to file their replies to the CBI plea.

“If trial is to be transferred then all accused have to be heard,” the bench said.

One accused Mohammed Rafiq Pahloo passed away and the trial against him stood abated, the bench was informed.

Aside from Malik and Pahloo, 10 persons were made party to the CBI’s plea.

On November 28, the top court sought a response from Malik and others on the transfer plea.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta informed the bench that Malik need not be physically taken to a Jammu court for the trial in the kidnapping case as Tihar jail had a court with video-conferencing facilities.

The top court was hearing a CBI plea against the September 20, 2022 order of a Jammu trial court directing Malik, serving a life term in Tihar jail, to be produced before it physically to cross-examine prosecution witnesses in the Rubaiya Sayeed case.

The CBI said Malik, the top leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, was a threat to national security and couldn’t be allowed to be taken outside the Tihar jail premises.

Rubaiya Sayeed, who was freed five days after her abduction when the then BJP-backed V P Singh government at the Centre released five terrorists in exchange, now lives in Tamil Nadu. She is a prosecution witness for the CBI, which took over the case in early 1990s.

Malik is lodged in Tihar jail after he was sentenced by a special NIA court in May, 2023, in a terror-funding case.