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Srinagar: Incarcerated Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik has strongly rejected allegations linking him to the abduction and killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat in 1990, calling the charges a politically motivated fabrication aimed at maligning the Kashmir freedom struggle.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, in an affidavit filed before a court, the jailed JKLF chief said he had been falsely implicated in the case after more than 36 years, despite his name not figuring in the original investigation.<\/p>\n
His name was first included by the notorious State Investigation Agency (SIA) in a chargesheet filed in June in connection with the killing of Bhat in April 1990.<\/p>\n
Malik told the court that three officers visited him in Tihar Jail, New Delhi, prior to the chargesheet and referred to “an alleged handwritten JKLF note recovered from the crime scene” that purportedly named him along with Javaid Mir and Sheikh Abdul Hamid.<\/p>\n
Questioning the timing and credibility of the claim, Malik asked why investigators had not named him or the others mentioned in the alleged note when the case was originally probed.<\/p>\n
“On what legal or factual basis has this theory suddenly emerged after several decades? If such a note had existed, it could not have escaped the attention of investigators at the time,” he said in the affidavit.<\/p>\n
During questioning by the SIA in June, Malik was asked whether JKLF suspected Bhat of passing information to Indian forces and whether he had ordered her killing following a raid at Narwara in Downtown Srinagar on April 8, 1990. “I categorically stated that the allegation is entirely false. Neither Ms Sarla Bhat was working for the Indian forces in any covert capacity, nor was she in any manner responsible for the raid conducted at Narwara,” Malik stated.<\/p>\n
The JKLF Chairman said he first came to know about Bhat\u2019s murder on February 21, 1991, while he was in judicial custody.<\/p>\n
Malik made it clear that his decision not to contest the trial proceedings was based on “personal circumstances” and political grounds, and not an admission of guilt. “The present proceedings have arisen out of political circumstances and decisions. I believe that I have been falsely implicated in the present case. My decision shall not be treated as an admission of any prosecution fact, guilt or acceptance of the allegations made against me. I request capital punishment,” he told the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Srinagar: Incarcerated Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik has strongly rejected allegations linking him to the abduction and killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat in 1990, calling the charges a politically motivated fabrication aimed at maligning the Kashmir freedom struggle. According to Kashmir Media Service, in an affidavit filed before a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-occupied-jammu-and-kashmir"],"yoast_head":"\n