HC issues notice to Yasin Malik on NIA’s plea for death penalty in terror funding case

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to the Kashmiri separatist leader and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief, Yasin Malik on a plea by the NIA to award death penalty to him in a terror funding case.

A division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh asked Malik to respond to the plea by the NIA. The court also directed for his physical appearance on the next date of hearing, August 9, 2023.

The court also sought recommendations of the Law Commission on death penalty.

It also issued the warrant for production of jailed leader, undergoing life term.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the NIA, informed the court that terrorist Yasin Malik carried out sensational killing of four Indian Air Force personnel and his outfit abducted Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then home minister. This resulted in release of dreaded terrorists who then carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, he claimed.

"If such dreaded terrorists are not given capital punishment only on the ground that they have pleaded guilty, then it will result in complete erosion of the sentencing policy of the country. This is a rarest of rare case and he (Malik) should be therefore be sentenced to the gallows," Mehta told the court.

After the hearing, the court also summoned the trial court records.

In its plea, the NIA said, "Not giving capital punishment to such dreaded terrorists will result in miscarriage of justice, as, an act of terrorism is not a crime against society but it’s a crime against the entire nation; in other words, it’s an act of external aggression, an act of war and an affront to the sovereignty of nation.”

On May 25, 2022, a Delhi court had sentenced Malik to life imprisonment in the case related to terror activities and funding, saying he was convicted of crimes of very serious nature, intended to strike at the heart of the idea of India and to forcefully secede J&K. It had rejected the NIA's plea to send the convict to the gallows.

Malik had pleaded guilty to the charges in the case.

On May 30, 2017, the NIA lodged the case related to raising, receiving and collecting funds domestically and abroad through various illegal channels including hawala for funding terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The agency filed the charge sheet in the matter on January 18, 2018.