New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday (November 28) informed the Supreme Court that it has filed an application seeking the transfer of trial of Jammu and Kashmir separatist leader Yasin Malik in a kidnapping case of daughter of former Union minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed from Jammu to a court facility in Tihar Jail, where he is currently serving sentence in a terror funding case.
The CBI also informed a bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih that it has also filed an application to amend its appeal to add other co-accused as parties.
Apex Court was hearing CBI’s appeal against Jammu court order
The bench, which was hearing CBI’s appeal challenging a Jammu court order directing Malik be produced before it physically to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses in the kidnapping case of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya Sayeed, amended the amendment petition and issued notice to all co-accused in the case as well as on the transfer petition.
There is a fully functional court in Tihar Jail itself: CBI
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that there is a fully functional court in Tihar Jail itself with all facilities of videoconferencing also and Malik need not be physically produced before the Jammu court.
The matter would be next heard on December 18.
‘Even Ajmal Kasab was given a fair trial in our country’, Apex Court remarked earlier
The apex court, during the last hearing on CBI’s appeal had indicated setting up of a courtroom inside Tihar Jail in Delhi Malik’s trial in the kidnapping case, observing that even Ajmal Kasab was given a fair trial in our country.
“How will cross-examination in the case be done online? There is hardly any connectivity in Jammu… In our country, a fair trial was given even to Ajmal Kasab and legal assistance was given to him,” the bench had remarked.
The bench, during the last hearing, had noted that all the accused persons in the kidnapping case had to be heard before it passes an order in the matter, and had directed the CBI to amend its petition and implead all accused persons as respondents in the matter.
The CBI has said that there were security concerns and Malik couldn’t be taken to Jammu for the trial in the case.
