New Delhi, July 22: A day after the Supreme Court raised concern over Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief and terror-funding case convict Yasin Malik’s physical presence in court, the Tihar administrator on Saturday suspended four officials.
The suspended officials include one deputy superintendent, two assistant superintendents and one head warden.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Friday flagged a “serious lapse” in the Supreme Court’s security after Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik showed up in court. Mehta wrote to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, stating that the security of the Supreme Court was compromised by the jail authorities who brought Yasin Malik.
“It is my firm view that this is a serious security lapse. A person with a terrorist and secessionist background like Yasin Malik who is not only a convict in a terror funding case but has known connections with terror organisations in Pakistan could have escaped, could have been forcibly taken away or could have been killed,” Mehta wrote.
Earlier in the day on Friday, the court also expressed displeasure over Yasin Malik’s appearance. As soon as the hearing began, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Dutta said, “Justice Dutta can’t hear this matter.”
Tushar Mehta highlighted that there is an order passed by the Ministry of Home Affairs with regard to 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.
