IAF personnel killing: TADA court to hear case against JKLF chief Yasin Malik on November 26

The TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act) Court in Jammu on Tuesday ordered that it will hear the case against jailed separatist leader Yasin Malik for the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in Kashmir on November 26. 

On September 10, 2019, a warrant was issued against Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Malik and three others who were allegedly involved in this incident which took place on January 25, 1990, on the outskirts of Srinagar city.

Malik is currently in judicial custody at Delhi's Tihar Jail after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with a terror funding case. 

The CBI had filed two charge sheets against Malik in August and September of 1990 before the designated TADA court in Jammu but the JKLF chairman was granted a stay on trial in 1995 by a single bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court as Srinagar had no designated TADA court.

In April 2019, the path for trial against Malik was cleared after CBI counsel Monika Kohli told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that the agency had opposed the transfer of the case to Srinagar which was rejected. Kohli also informed the High Court that the agency had also filed a plea challenging TADA court order but these could not be heard.

During the hearing, Kohli informed HC Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta that there is no TADA court in Srinagar and the designated court in Jammu was given jurisdiction to hear such cases in May 1990.

In his order, Justice Gupta had said, "... From bare perusal of contents of petitions and relief sought therein, one can definitely come to conclusion that petitioners (Malik) have sought transfer of their cases from designated court Jammu to additional court at Srinagar, which is not permissible under law."

The IAF case dates back to January 25, 1990 when IAF employees were fired upon by terrorists in which four of them, including Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna, died on the spot. Talking to Zee News, Ravi Khanna's widow Shalini Khanna had recently said that she has been waiting for justice for the last 30 years. Shalini, however, expressed hope that she will now get justice and Malik will face justice for the crime which he had committed three decades ago.