Eyewitness identifies JKLF chief Malik in Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case

More than three decades after high-profile abduction and release of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister, late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed an eyewitness identified J&K Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik as one of the kidnappers before a court on Friday.

Incarcerated Malik appeared before Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) court via video-conferencing in Jammu and the eyewitness corroborated that he had gone to Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district at the time of the kidnapping of Rubaiya.

He (eyewitness) identified the place and persons connected with the kidnapping, the prosecution said, terming it a major success for their side.

Read | TADA court orders Malik to appear in person in Rubaiya kidnapping case

57-year-old Malik, who is serving life-term in Delhi’s Tihar jail in a terror funding financing case, was not produced in the court physically due to a Ministry of Home Affairs order restricting his movement.

Rubaiya was kidnapped in December 1989 by Malik and his aides after her father had taken over as Union home minister just a week before in the VP Singh-led National Front government.

The eyewitness, identified as number 13, besides identifying Malik through virtual mode, also identified another accused Mohammad Zaman in the open court, senior public prosecutor S K Bhat told reporters.

He said while eyewitness number 13 was present in the court, eyewitness number 7 could not attend due to health reasons. “The statement of the eyewitness (13) was recorded and he identified the places and the accused twice in the court," Bhat said and added that other accused in the case were also present in the court.

The eyewitness 13 admitted that he had gone to Sopore, along with another eyewitness, a day after the kidnapping of Rubaiya, he said. Of the two accused, Ali Mohammad Mir who is the prime accused in the kidnapping case after Malik, had taken Rubaiya in his vehicle to Sopore from Srinagar and kept her in the Khan guest house.

On July 15 last year, Rubaiya, who now lives in Chennai, identified four of her kidnappers, including Malik, after she appeared personally before the TADA court.

The court has now directed the prosecution to produce the two witnesses in the case on the next date of hearing on March 31. On Friday, Rubaiya did not appear for the hearing as her exemption application had earlier been approved by the court.

Malik had observed a 10-day hunger strike in July last year after the Centre did not respond to his plea to physically appear in the Jammu court hearing the abduction case.

Last year the NIA court while handing down the life sentence noted that Malik’s crimes were “intended to strike at the heart of the idea of India” and were “committed with the assistance of foreign powers and designated terrorists.”