Separatist leader Yasin Malik and his associate Rafiq Pahloo appeared via video conference in a Jammu court on Thursday in connection with the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Two eyewitnesses identified Ali Mohammad Mir, another accused in the case, Senior Additional Advocate General and Chief Prosecutor of the CBI Monika Kohli said.
The next date of hearing was fixed on December 14, Kohli added.
The two eyewitnesses – numbers 24 and 25 – supported the prosecution and identified accused Ali Mohammad Mir, senior public prosecutor S K Bhat told PTI.
Ali Mohammad Mir, the prime accused in the kidnapping case after Malik, had taken Rubaiya Sayeed in his vehicle to Sopore from Srinagar and kept her at a guesthouse.
Malik and Pahloo appeared via video conference.
Malik, who is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail where he is serving a jail term in a terror financing case, was not produced in the court physically due to a Union Ministry of Home Affairs order restricting his movement.
Pahloo is lodged in the Central Jail in Srinagar following his arrest for reviving the terrorist apparatus in the Kashmir valley.
He is among 10 terrorists arrested in July from a hotel in a case related to a conspiracy to revive the banned JKLF and separatist amalgam Hurriyat conference in the valley.
In a separate case connected with the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in a terrorist attack in Srinagar in 1990, the court had summoned a witness for identification but he could not appear as he is unwell.
The court has set December 14 as the next date of hearing in the IAF killing case and called for the summoning of witnesses for cross-examination.
The special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court has already framed charges separately against JKLF chief Malik and several others in both cases.
The charges against Malik, Pahloo and eight others in the 1989 abduction case of Rubaiya Sayeed were framed by the court on January 11, 2021.
