The Supreme Court noted that even Ajmal Kasab, a terrorist involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, was given a fair trial, during a hearing where the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) appealed against a Jammu court decision requiring Yasin Malik, a Kashmiri separatist leader, to appear in court.
Yasin Malik is the primary suspect in the murders of four Indian Air Force members close to Srinagar in 1990 and the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in 1989.
The court requested Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to consider the option of conducting hearings within Tihar Jail, where Yasin Malik is presently incarcerated.
Mehta said he would ask for guidance regarding the issue. He stressed that Malik could not be brought to Jammu for the trial due to worries about the safety of witnesses.
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The lawyer for the government told the judges that Malik had demanded to be present himself and declined to hire an attorney.
Mehta also showed a picture of Malik standing on stage with Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and contended that Malik was not just a regular suspect.
The panel expressed worries regarding online cross-examinations, questioning, “How can cross-examination be effectively conducted online?” The reliability of connectivity in Jammu is minimal.
The court stated that ‘even Ajmal Kasab was given a fair trial‘ in our country and requested the Solicitor General to provide information on the number of witnesses in the trial.
Yasin Malik is currently imprisoned in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for his involvement in a case related to funding terrorism, serving a life sentence.
The court set the next hearing for November 28 and permitted the CBI to revise its petition to name all accused as respondents.
