The Special TADA court of Jammu has framed charges against the banned terrorist organization Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF) chief Yasin Malik in the case pertaining to the murder of four Air Force officers in January 1990. Malik has been charged under sections Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) 302, 307, TADA Act, Sections 3 (3) and 4 (1) of the Arms Act.
According to public prosecutor Rakesh Singh, who is representing the Central Bureau of Investigation, Yasin Malik and Showkat Bakshi and five others have pleaded not guilty and demanded a trial. The court will be listed on March 30, he informed.
Jammu and Kashmir: A TADA (Terrorist & anti-disruptive activities Act) court frames charges against Yasin Malik and six others in the case of killing of Indian Air Force officer Ravi Khanna & three others in 1990. (File photo of Yasin Malik) pic.twitter.com/fvWiyz0Awu
— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2020
Shalini Khanna, the widow of one of the slain Air Force officials- Squadron leader Ravi Khanna, believes that justice will finally be served to her and the families of the IAF officials killed by Yasin and his associates. She had been relentlessly pursuing the case against her husband’s murderers for last 3 decades. Shalini claims that she has been an eyewitness of the atrocity meted out against the 4 IAF personnel. She stated that the 4 IAF officers including her husband Ravi Khanna, were shot dead in front of her eyes by Yasin Malik.
Last year, Khanna said, “Yasin Malik not only killed Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna but also murdered my mother-in-law, my father-in-law and my mother. Childhood of my two small children was lost and our happiness was snatched away from us.”
The TADA court had earlier observed that there is enough prima facie evidence against the JKLF chief Yasin Malik for prosecuting him in connection with the murder of IAF personnel in Kashmir in 1990. The court had stated that there are “sufficient grounds for drawing presumption that the accused Yasin Malik” and others have “prima facie have committed” the crime of murdering Indian Air Force (IAF) officer Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna and three others.
On 25 January 1990, at 7:30 am a group of JKLF terrorists had opened fire at 40 Air Force personnel who were unarmed and waiting at the Sant Nagar crossing, Srinagar, to board a bus. As a result, 40 of the unarmed Air Force personnel were injured, and two of them had lost their lives. CBI filed a charge sheet on August 31, 1990, against terrorist Yasin Malik and other members of JKLF under Section 120-B read with section 302 of RPC, sections 3 and 4 of TADA and Section 27 of arms act in the court of third additional sessions judge against the accused.
Malik is currently lodged in Tihar Jail after the National Investigative Agency(NIA) arrested him in a terror funding case.
