SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Monday filed a 737-page chargesheet before a designated special court in Srinagar in connection with the 1990 abduction and murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, naming former Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik and four others as accused.
The chargesheet was filed before the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, TADA/POTA, and Special Judge designated under the NIA Act, nearly 36 years after the killing of Bhat, a staff nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura.
Besides Malik, the chargesheet names Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Ghulam Mohammad Taploo and Mohammad Yousuf Sofi alias Idrees. According to the SIA, Sheikh, Taploo and Sofi have since died, while proclamation proceedings have been initiated against Chalkoo, who is believed to have fled to Pakistan.
The agency said the chargesheet is based on oral testimonies, documentary records, forensic and ballistic examinations, medical evidence, electronic material and extensive field investigations carried out after the case was transferred to the SIA in March 2024.
According to investigators, Sarla Bhat was abducted near the SKIMS campus on April 18, 1990. Her body was recovered the following day from Omer Colony in Srinagar with multiple gunshot injuries. The SIA alleged that she was abducted, tortured and killed pursuant to a criminal conspiracy.
Officials said the reinvestigation involved re-examining physical evidence, tracing and recording statements of witnesses, analysing forensic and ballistic material, and reviewing documentary and electronic evidence collected over the years.
The agency stated that forensic examination confirmed that cartridge cases recovered from the crime scene had been fired from the same automatic weapon, corroborating witness accounts.
According to the SIA, the investigation found that allegations portraying Bhat as a police informer were unsubstantiated. The agency alleged that her killing formed part of a broader campaign of targeted violence during the early years of militancy.
The accused have been chargesheeted under Sections 364, 341, 302 read with 34, 201 and 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code, relevant provisions of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), and Sections 7 and 27 of the Arms Act.
In a statement, the SIA described the filing of the chargesheet as a significant development in the investigation of legacy terror cases in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The filing of the chargesheet after nearly 35 years marks a historic milestone in the pursuit of justice for victims of terrorism,” an SIA spokesperson said, adding that “time can never become a shield for terrorism” and that those responsible for terrorist crimes would continue to remain answerable before the law.
Malik is currently in judicial custody in another case, while legal proceedings against the surviving accused will continue before the designated court.
