Yasin Malik appears in court virtually in Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case

JAMMU: Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik appeared before a special court in Jammu via videoconferencing on Thursday in the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case. She was not present for the hearing as the court exempted her from personal appearance after she moved an application.
This was the second time in two days that Malik appeared in the court through virtual mode. On Wednesday, he attended the hearing in the IAF officers’ killing case.
Chief prosecutor Monika Kohli told reporters that Malik, who is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, was not physically produced due to a ministry of home affairs order restricting his movement. He is serving life sentence awarded by an NIA court after pleading guilty in a case related to terrorism and secessionist activities that disturbed the Kashmir Valley in 2016-17.
During Thursday’s hearing, Malik again insisted on physical appearance to cross-examine the witness. The next hearing in the case is on November 24.
Rubaiya, daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was kidnapped near Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar on December 8, 1989. She was freed five days later after the Central government, then led by VP Singh and supported by the BJP, released five terrorists in exchange.
Rubaiya had identified five accused, including Malik, in the court on July 15. When she said she couldn’t recognise them after 33 years, she was shown their photographs of the time the kidnapping took place and she identified them.