Yasin Malik faces trial in Sarla Bhat rape-murder case 35 years after brutal crime instilled fear in Kashmiri Pandits
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Yasin Malik faces trial in Sarla Bhat rape-murder case 35 years after brutal crime instilled fear in Kashmiri Pandits")
Yasin Malik attended the proceedings before the Srinagar TADA Court through video conferencing. Photograph: (AFP)
Sarla Bhat, a nurse in the Neonatology Department at SKIMS Soura, was abducted on April 18, 1990, after she finished her duty at the hospital. She was allegedly taken to the Illahibagh-Lal Bazar area, where she was assaulted, tortured and later shot dead with an automatic rifle.
The Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Monday filed a 737-page chargesheet naming JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik as the alleged mastermind behind the abduction, rape and murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat nearly 35 years after the brutal crime was committed to instil fear and insecurity in Kashmiri Pandits and trigger their exodus from the Valley.
The voluminous chargesheet filed before the TADA Court in Srinagar alleges that Sarla’s killing was not an isolated act of terror but part of a wider conspiracy of targeted violence against the Kashmiri Pandit community in 1990 to instil fear and compel mass exodus.
The chargesheet invokes offences under Sections 364, 341, 201, 302 read with Section 34 and Section 120B of the IPC, multiple provisions of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), and Sections 7 and 27 of the Arms Act.
Who was Sarla Bhat?
Sarla Bhat, a nurse in the Neonatology Department at SKIMS Soura, was abducted on April 18, 1990, after she finished her duty at the hospital. She was allegedly taken to the Illahibagh-Lal Bazar area, where she was assaulted, tortured and later shot dead with an automatic rifle.
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Her body was recovered the next day on the Mallabagh-Omer Colony Road in Srinagar.
The chargesheet names Mohammad Yasin Malik, who was then the Chief Commander of the JKLF, as the principal conspirator.
Besides Malik, the investigation identifies Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, who is alleged to have fled to Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and remains absconding, along with Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohammad Yousuf Sofi alias Idrees and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo, all of whom are now deceased, as participants in the alleged conspiracy.
The case was transferred to the SIA, J&K, on March 18, 2024, under the orders of the Director General of Police (DGP), J&K.
As Malik is currently serving concurrent life sentences in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail after his 2022 conviction in a terror-funding case, he attended the proceedings before the Srinagar TADA Court through video conferencing.
Case unresolved due to violence, witness intimidation
The case, originally registered as FIR No. 56/1990 at Police Station Nigeen under provisions of the IPC and TADA, had remained unresolved for decades amid the violence and witness intimidation that marked the peak of the insurgency.
The SIA reopened the investigation by recording statements of protected witnesses under Sections 161 and 164 CrPC, reconstructing the crime scene, conducting fresh forensic examinations and tracing individuals associated with JKLF activities in the Soura-Lal Bazar area in 1990.
The eyewitnesses identified Sarla Bhat in the company of the accused shortly before her abduction and described the manner in which she was allegedly dragged away, assaulted and killed.
The chargesheet brings together oral, documentary, forensic, ballistic, medical and electronic evidence collected over decades.
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SIA analysed and compiled evidence to recreate case, bring it to trial
The SIA reconstructed the case through protected witness testimonies, forensic and ballistic evidence, documentary records, electronic evidence and contemporaneous material and succeeded in bringing the case to trial.
The prosecution case relies on multiple strands of evidence, including protected witness statements, independent eyewitness accounts, medico-legal findings documenting firearm injuries and alleged torture, ballistic examination of cartridge cases recovered from the scene and electronic evidence.
The SIA also cited the recovery of a handwritten JKLF claim note from the crime scene. The JKLF claim note is corroborated by contemporaneous media reports and other evidence collected during the investigation.
The investigation also states that JKLF had accused Sarla Bhat of acting as an informer for security forces following a raid at Narwara on April 8, 1990, during which several JKLF militants were arrested and Yasin Malik allegedly sustained injuries while escaping. The SIA says that this accusation was a pretext for an already planned targeted killing.
