Delhi HC issues notice to Yasin Malik for death penalty, NIA compares JKLF chief to Osama Bin Laden

NewsBharati    29-May-2023 16:27:35 PM
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New Delhi, May 29: The Delhi high court on Monday issued a notice to separatist leader Yasin Malik, who is currently serving a life term, on a plea by the National Investigation Agency seeking death penalty for him in a terror funding case.
 
A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh also issued warrants for production of Malik before it on August 9.
 
Yasin Malik Death Penalty NIA 
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared on behalf of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), argued that the accused indulged in terrorist and secessionist activities and should be awarded death penalty by treating the matter as a ”rarest of rare” case.
 
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the NIA, went on to compare Malik with slain al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. "If Osama Bin Laden was before this court, he would also get the same treatment," Mehta said. To this, Justice Mridul said there can be no comparison between the two because Osama did not face any trial in any court of law across the globe. Mehta then said, "I think the US was correct." Justice Mridul refused to comment on that.
 
 
"In view of the ground that Yasin Malik, sole respondent in this appeal, has inter alia pleaded guilty to a charge under section 121 IPC which provides for an alternate death sentence, we issue notice to him... to be served through the jail superintendent," the court ordered. Let warrants be issued for his production on the next date of hearing, it added.
 
On May 24, 2022, a trial court in New Delhi had awarded life imprisonment to Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Malik after holding him guilty for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the IPC.
 
The SG, on a specific query, told the court that Malik had killed four Indian Air Force (IAF) officers and also abducted the daughter of the then home minister, in return for the release of the terrorists, who later went on to plan the 26/11 terror attacks.
 
Malik was convicted after pleading guilty to charges related to terror funding, spreading terrorism and secessionist activities in Kashmir in 2017.
 
In its plea before the high court for enhancement of the sentence to death penalty, the NIA said if such ”dreaded terrorists” are not given capital punishment on account of pleading guilty, there would be complete erosion of the sentencing policy and terrorists would have a way out to avoid capital punishment.
 
A life sentence, the NIA asserted, is not commensurate with the crime committed by terrorists when the nation and families of soldiers have suffered loss of lives, and that the trial court's conclusion that Malik's crimes did not fall within the category of the ”rarest of the rare cases” for grant of death penalty is ”ex-facie legally flawed and completely unsustainable”.