The National Investigation Agency moved to Delhi High Court on Friday seeking death penalty, capital punishment for Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik.
Last year, the Trial Court awarded life imprisonment to Yasin Malik in a terror funding case. In its appeal, NIA stated that India lost its most valued soldiers due to the crime committed by such terrorists and that their ‘act of war’ gave the entire nation unrepairable grief.
NIA further added that the accused, over the years, has been leading terrorist activities in Kashmir along with foreign terrorist organisations with the intent to cause unrest in India.
It remarked that the criminalities committed by the respondent accused are ex-facie acts of “external aggression”, brazenly planned and executed by “acts of waging war against the nation” whereby “internal disturbance” was created through raising and using trained armed militia within the state and by helping trained terrorist, raised in enemy states, to enter the borders of India to participate and infuse such internal disturbances.
Delhi High Court’s Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh will hear the matter on May 29.
Earlier, on Thursday (May 25), the trial court Judge sentenced life imprisonment to JKLF leader Yasin Malik in a terror funding case and said, “In my opinion, there was no reformation of this convict. It may be correct that the convict may have given up the gun in the year 1994, but he had never expressed any regret for the violence he had committed prior to the year 1994.”
“It is to be noticed that, when he claimed to have given up the path of violence after the year 1994, the government of India took it at its face value and gave him an opportunity to reform and in good faith, tried to engage in a meaningful dialogue with him and as admitted by him, gave him every platform to express his opinion,” said NIA Judge Praveen Singh.
The NIA Court further said, “The crimes for which convict has been convicted are of a very serious nature. These crimes were intended to strike at the heart of the idea of India and intended to forcefully succeed J&K from UOI.”
“The crime becomes more serious as it was committed with the assistance of foreign powers and designated terrorists. The seriousness of the crime is further increased by the fact that it was committed behind the smoke screen of an alleged peaceful political movement,” added the trial court.
“The manner of the commission of the crime, and the kind of weaponry used in the crime lead me to the conclusion that the crime in question would fail the test of rarest of rare cases,” NIA Judge Praveen Singh said.
The NIA court while sentencing life imprisonment to Malik also imposed a fine of above Rs 10 lakh.
