Cross-examine virtually: SC denies physical production of Yasin Malik

Yasin Malik has been lodged in Tihar in a terror-funding case. File pic

The Supreme Court on Friday refused the physical production of jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik before a Jammu court but allowed him to cross-examine witnesses in a couple of cases through virtual mode.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan observed the Centre's order of December 2024 under Section 303 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act restricting his movement from the NCT of Delhi for a year. The order came in the matter where CBI sought transfer of the trials in the 1989 case of the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former union minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and the 1990 Srinagar shootout case, from Jammu to New Delhi.

The top court noted the Jammu sessions court was "well-equipped" with the virtual system.

The CBI's plea before the court challenged the September 20, 2022 order of a Jammu trial court directing lifer Malik to be produced before it physically to cross-examine prosecution witnesses in the abduction case. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also submitted that Malik was a security risk and cannot be taken to the Jammu court physically.

The CBI said he was a threat to the national security and couldn't be allowed to be taken outside the Tihar jail premises.

‘I am not a terrorist'

Malik told the Supreme Court that he was a "political leader and not a terrorist" and claimed seven prime ministers had engaged in a dialogue with him in the past. "CBI's objection is that I am a security threat. I am responding to that. I am not a terrorist and only a political leader," Malik, appearing via video-conferencing, told the SC.

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