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

A special court in Jammu on Wednesday ordered that Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Muhammad Yasin Malik appear in person in the December 1989 abduction case of Rubaiya Sayeed, sister of former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti.

Rubaiya, herself, appeared before a special court that hears cases pertaining to the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act, after it issued a bailable warrant against her on the date of the last hearing for her non-appearance.

TADA was an anti-terrorism law that was in force between 1985 and 1995. Several cases registered under it are still in various stages of the legal process.

The CBI counsel advocate Monika Kohli said lawyers of the other accused in the case cross-examined Rubaiya today. “The TADA court issued a production warrant against Yasin Malik and directed the Tihar jail authorities to produce him before it on the next date of the hearing on October 20,” she said.

Malik had requested the court to allow him to appear physically to cross-examine witnesses in the case. On July 15, Rubaiya identified the JKLF chief, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a terror funding case and was currently lodged in Tihar jail, as his abductor in 1989.

Rubaiya, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, was kidnapped by JKLF militants on the evening of December 8 and held hostage till December 13, 1989, in exchange of release of five ultras.

According to the CBI, several accused have already made confessional statements and disclosed their role in the kidnapping of the then home minister’s daughter.