CBI seeks cancellation of bail to JKLF’s Rafiq Pahloo in two terror-related cases

PTI, Aug 19, 2023, 1:53 PM IST

The CBI on Saturday moved a court here seeking the cancellation of bail to Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) terrorist Rafiq Pahloo in the 1990 Indian Air Force officers’ killing case and the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case.

Both the terror-related cases came up for hearing in the special TADA court on Saturday, Senior Additional Advocate General and chief prosecutor of CBI Monika Kohli told PTI.

Pahloo has been granted bail in the two cases but was arrested in Srinagar recently along with several others for trying to revive separatist activities.

JKLF chief Yasin Malik, also an accused in the killing and the kidnapping cases, could not attend the proceedings through video conferencing facility due to some ”technical glitch”.

Malik has been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since April 2019 when he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terror funding case.

Pahloo alias ”Nanaji” was among 10 terrorists arrested by police in July from a hotel in a case related to the conspiracy of reviving banned JKLF and separatist amalgam Hurriyat conference in the valley. He is presently lodged in Central Jail Srinagar on judicial remand.

As the proceedings in both the cases started on Saturday, Kohli said, the CBI moved an application for the cancellation of Pahloo’s bail in the two cases, informing the special TADA court that he had violated the conditions of the bail by indulging in separatist activities.

The court directed the Superintendent of Central Jail to produce Pahloo on the next date of hearing through the virtual mode and it is most likely that his bail in both the cases will be cancelled, she said.

The special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court has already framed charges separately against JKLF chief Malik and several others in both the cases. The charges were framed against Malik, Pahloo and five others on March 16, 2020 in the killing of four IAF personnel in the outskirts of Srinagar in January 1990. The charges against Malik, Pahloo and eight others in the 1989 abduction case of Rubaiya Sayeed was framed by the court on January 11, 2021.

The court has set September 16 as next date of hearing in the IAF killing case and October 1 for the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case for cross examination of the witnesses, Kohli said. Rubaiya Sayeed is the daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was then Union home minister.