The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has requested the Delhi High Court to conduct in-camera proceedings in its ongoing plea seeking the death penalty for Yasin Malik, the Kashmiri separatist leader and chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Malik is currently serving a life sentence in a terror-funding case.
During the virtual hearing, Yasin Malik appeared via video conference from Tihar Jail, expressing to the Bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain that he had been living under “mental agony” for three years due to the uncertainty surrounding the potential of receiving a death sentence.
The NIA, citing the sensitive and high-risk nature of the case, appealed for restricted public access to the proceedings and requested a private virtual link for the hearing. The Delhi High Court noted the submission and scheduled the next hearing for January 28, 2026, while agreeing to consider the NIA’s request for a closed-door session.
The agency’s appeal challenges the 2022 trial court judgment that sentenced Malik to life imprisonment after he pleaded guilty under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The NIA maintained that a guilty plea should not reduce the severity of punishment in terror cases, arguing that doing so would undermine national security and weaken sentencing policy.
The trial court earlier acknowledged that Malik’s actions struck at the heart of India’s sovereignty, aiming to forcibly separate Jammu and Kashmir from the Union, but it stopped short of imposing the death penalty.
Malik, representing himself without legal counsel, continues to appear virtually after an August 2024 court directive barred his in-person attendance due to security concerns. Meanwhile, he also faces a separate trial over the 1990 killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in Srinagar, where a key eyewitness — a retired IAF officer — has reportedly identified him as the main assailant.
