Delhi High Court allows Tihar Jail authorities' plea to produce Yasin Malik in court via video conference

The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed the Tihar Jail authorities to present convicted Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik before the Court via video conference (VC) in the case filed by National Investigation Agency (NI) seeking death sentence for Malik. .A Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anish Dayal allowed the application moved by the Tihar Jail Superintendent seeking modification of the Court's earlier order mandating Malik's personal appearance. The authorities informed the High Court about an order of October 2022 issued by the President of India directing that Malik should not be moved from Tihar or be taken out of Delhi. "In that view of the matter the order is modified to the extent that the Jail Superintendent is directed to produce Yasin Malik in the present appeal through VC," the Court ordered. .In its application, the Tihar Jail authorities cited the President's order and said that Malik has been categorised as "very high risk prisoner" therefore, should be allowed to join the proceedings through VC."Furthermore, it is submitted that the Respondent/Convict Yasin Malik has been lodged in the Tihar Jail, New Delhi under the category of very high risk prisoners and thus, the present Application is in relation to a heavy security issue. Therefore, it is imperative that the Respondent/Convict Yasin Malik is not physically produced before this Hon’ble Court in order to maintain public order and safety," the application said..Notably, on July 21, Malik had appeared before the Supreme Court while it was hearing a CBI case against him.This had prompted SG Tushar Mehta to write to the Union Home Secretary stating that Malik's presence in the apex court was a matter of grave security lapse since the convicted terrorist "could have escaped or could have been killed"..The Delhi High Court has been hearing NIA's appeal against a trial court order awarding life imprisonment to Malik. The anti-terror agency has sought death sentence for the convicted terrorist.Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special NIA court in a terror funding case in May 2022. Malik was convicted of offences under Section 120B, 121, 121A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 13 and 15 of UAPA read with 120B of the IPC besides Sections 17, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of UAPA.He had pleaded guilty in the case..Delhi government's Standing Counsel (Criminal) Sanjay Lao appeared for the Tihar Jail Superintendent. NIA was represented through Special Public Prosecutor Akshai Malik as well as advocates Akshay Sehgal and Khawar Saleem.