NEW DELHI, July 22: The Department of Delhi Prisons on Saturday suspended four officials, including a deputy superintendent, in connection with jailed terrorist JKLF chief Yasin Malik physically taken to the Supreme Court for personal appearance.
Malik’s presence in a packed courtroom created a flutter in the Supreme Court on Friday. He is serving a life term in Delhi’s Tihar jail. Malik, who is in jail following his conviction and life sentence in a terror funding case, was brought to the high-security court premises in a prison van escorted by armed security personnel without the court’s permission. He walked into the courtroom to the utter surprise of all present.
“In the matter of the physical production of Malik before the Supreme Court on Friday, the Prisons Department has suspended one deputy superintendent, two assistant superintendents, and one head warder on Friday night as they were found to be prima facie responsible based on preliminary inquiry,” the statement said.
“A detailed probe is being conducted by DIG Tihar to identify any other officials who may also be responsible for the serious lapse,” it added. On Friday, prison officials said the Deputy Inspector General (Prisons-Headquarters) Rajiv Singh would conduct an inquiry into the lapse and fix the responsibility of erring officials and submit a report to the Director General (Prisons) within three days.
Surprised by Malik’s presence in the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Friday told a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta that there is a procedure for high-risk convicts to be allowed into the courtroom to argue their case personally. When Tushar Mehta pointed at Malik’s presence in the courtroom, the bench said it had not granted him permission or passed any order allowing him to argue his case in person.
Malik appeared in the Supreme Court when a bench headed by Justice Kant was hearing an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the September 20, 2022 order of a trial court in Jammu in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
(Manas Dasgupta)