NEW DELHI – The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has requested the Delhi High Court to conduct in-camera hearings for its appeal seeking the death penalty for Yasin Malik, the chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), in a 2017 terror funding case. The NIA cited national security concerns and the sensitivity of the evidence as reasons for the request.
The request was made before a division bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain. The NIA, represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, argued that open court proceedings could jeopardize ongoing investigations and sources due to the sensitive nature of the evidence related to terror funding channels. Special Public Prosecutor Akshai Malik appeared for NIA and asked the Court to provide/ enable a virtual court link for the proceedings, which is not public.
The NIA's appeal challenges a 2022 special court's verdict that sentenced Malik to life imprisonment after he was convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for raising funds to fuel unrest in Kashmir. The agency contends that Malik's actions, allegedly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, resulted in deaths and qualify as "waging war against India," thus meriting capital punishment under the "rarest of rare" doctrine. The NIA had demanded capital punishment for Malik before the trial court as well. However, the prayer was refused by the trial court judge stating that the death penalty should be awarded only in exceptional cases "where the crime by its nature shocks the collective consciousness of the society".
Yasin Malik, who appeared via video conference from Tihar Jail, opposed the NIA's request for in-camera hearings, with his counsel calling it an attempt to "hide facts from public scrutiny". Malik, who pleaded guilty in 2022 and boycotted subsequent proceedings, also argued against any adjournment and said that the protracted delay of around three years in deciding the appeal is a form of psychological torture. "It's been three years since NIA's appeal has been pending. I had served the affidavit three months ago. Keeping a person in psychological torture, whether he will be hanged or not…," Malik said.
The court has directed the NIA to file a formal application regarding the in-camera hearing request and has scheduled the matter for further hearing on January 28. The bench said it would consider the request for in-camera proceedings on that date.
In his reply in the case, Malik claimed that after his arrest in 1990, he was actively engaged by six consecutive governments, headed by V.P. Singh to Manmohan Singh, to speak about the Kashmir cause. In his affidavit, Yasin Malik said he had worked closely with the government and intelligence officials in the past and held closed-door meetings with dignitaries.
