SRINAGAR: A day after the physical appearance of jailed Hurriyat leader and JKLF chief Yasin Malik in the Supreme Court, with the Delhi Prisons Department stating there was a “prima facie lapse” on the part of some officials, the Tihar Jail administration has suspended four officers.
The suspended officials include a Deputy Superintendent and two Assistant Superintendents, according to prison officials.
According to a news report in India Today, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, in his address to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, wrote, “It is my firm view that this is a serious security lapse.” He further stated, “A person with a terrorist and secessionist background like Yasin Malik, who is not only a convict in a terror funding case but also has known connections with terror organizations in Pakistan, could have escaped, could have been forcibly taken away, or could have been killed.”
The report also mentioned that Mehta highlighted an order passed by the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding Yasin Malik under Section 268 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which prevents the jail authorities from bringing the said convict out of the jail premises.
According to Mehta, neither the Supreme Court had called Malik nor granted authorisation for this action. He questioned the officer in charge of Malik’s security in his letter about the reasons for physically bringing him to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court also stated that there are virtual modes for appearing in court.
The officer responded with a notice that has been sent to all the parties involved in the case before their hearing. However, in his letter, Mehta wrote that the jail officials receive hundreds of such notices every day, but they have never interpreted this to suggest that the physical attendance of the accused is sought.
It is pertinent to mention that Yasin Malik appeared before the Supreme Court when a bench led by Justice Surya Kant was hearing an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against a trial court’s September 20, 2022 order in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
