A TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act) court on Monday framed charges against Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik and nine co-accused in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Union Home Minister late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, The Indian Express reported.
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The daughter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) founder was kidnapped on December 8, 1989, and was freed in an exchange for JKLF militants, who were at that time lodged in different jails.
In its charge sheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had named about two dozen accused. Charges were pressed against 10 among them, on Monday.
Other than Malik, charges were pressed against Ali Mohammad Mir, Mohammad Zaman Mir, Iqbal Ahmad Gandroo, Javed Ahmad Mir alias Nalka, Mohammad Rafiq Pahloo alias Nana Ji alias Saleem, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, Wajahat Bashir, Mehraj-ud-Din Sheikh and Showkat Ahmad Bakshi, according to a report published in The Indian Express.
Referring to confessional statements by Mohammad Zaman Mir and Ali Mohammad Mir before the magistrate under Section 164 of CrPC regarding their involvement and the role of other accused, Special TADA Judge Sunit Gupta observed that he was of the considered view that “sufficient grounds exist” for drawing prima facie presumption that Yasin Malik, Ali Mohammad Mir, Iqbal Ahmed Gandroo, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, Mehraj-u-Din Sheikh and Rafiq Ahmed Pahloo have committed the offences of entering into a criminal conspiracy, kidnapping Sayeed with an intention to murder and keeping her in wrongful confinement under provisions of Ranbir Penal Code, apart from TADA Act and Indian Arms Act.
Mohammad Zaman Mir, Javed Ahmed Mir, Wajahat Bashir and Shoukat Ahmed Bakshi were charged with criminal conspiracy, keeping Sayeed under wrongful confinement and provisions of TADA Act.
Among over a dozen accused, two — Mohammad Rafiq Dar and Mushtaq Ahmed Lone are dead.
Twelve others are absconding.
They are: Halima, Javed Iqbal Mir, Mohammad Yaqub Pandit, Riyaz Ahmed Bhat, Khursheed Ahmed Dar, Basharat Rehman Noori, Tariq Ashraf, Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, Manzoor Ahmed, Gulam Mohammad Taploo, Abdul Majeed Bhat and Nissar Ahmed Bhat.
As per the CBI charge sheet, the accused kidnapped Sayeed in the first week of December, 1989, who was at that time undergoing resident rotatory internship training in Lal Ded Hospital at Srinagar.
They borrowed a blue car from one of the accused, Ghulam Mohammad, and some of them and assembled in the house of accused Mushtaq Ahmed Lone on December 8, 1989, the CBI said in its charge sheet.
At Lone’s residence, the accused hatched a conspiracy to kidnap Sayeed while she was on her way back from the hospital to her residence at Nowgam Bye Pass, Srinagar.
After that, the accused reached the hospital and split into smaller groups.
To help them identify Sayeed, Malik pointed towards her, the CBI said.
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They, then, stopped the minibus she was travelling in, on a gunpoint and Sayeed was made to board the car. She was freed only after five JKLF militants were released.
