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Delhi HC grants NIA ‘last opportunity’ to respond to Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik

Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, who has been lodged in Tihar jail since 2019, has denied his role in terror funding and alleged that he was being made a scapegoat.

2 min readNew DelhiJan 29, 2026 09:26 AM IST

yasir malik hearing, supreme court, jammu court videoconferencing, indian express

Yasin Malik, the former chief of the banned terror outfit Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), is currently lodged in Tihar jail. (Source: Express Archives)

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted a “last opportunity” to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file its response to various claims made by Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik. The NIA has an appeal pending before the Delhi High Court, seeking enhancement of Malik’s punishment—from life imprisonment to a death sentence—in a 2016 terror funding case.

While Malik, who was appearing virtually before the court, opposed the NIA’s request for time to file a response, the bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja orally remarked to Malik that there was no urgency in the matter as the appeal was only for enhancement of punishment.

“Isme koi urgency nahi hai (there is no urgency in this),” the bench remarked while scheduling the next hearing in the case for April 22.

Malik, who is appearing for himself, told the court, “Appeal bhi inki hi hai and they want time to file the reply. Har date inki yehi hai ki humme ek aur date de do (This is NIA’s appeal, and they keep asking for time. On the last date too, they sought time.”

In November last year, the NIA had similarly sought time to respond to Malik’s reply to the appeal.

In an affidavit submitted to the high court in a sealed cover in August last year, Malik, who has been lodged in Tihar jail since 2019, reportedly denied his role in terror funding. Malik is learnt to have stated that the NIA could not produce evidence in this regard, and he was being made a scapegoat.

It is also learnt that he accused the state of attempting to erase the history of engagement, and purportedly claimed that after his arrest in 1990, he was actively engaged by six consecutive dispensations under the leadership of then Prime Ministers V P Singh, Chandra Shekhar, P V Narasimha Rao, H D Deve Gowda, Inder Kumar Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

Sohini Ghosh

Sohini Ghosh is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express. Previously based in Ahmedabad covering Gujarat, she recently moved to the New Delhi bureau, where she primarily covers legal developments at the Delhi High Court Professional Profile Background: An alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), she previously worked with ET NOW before joining The Indian Express. Core Beats: Her reporting is currently centered on the Delhi High Court, with a focus on high-profile constitutional disputes, disputes over intellectual property, criminal and civil cases, issues of human rights and regulatory law (especially in the areas of technology and healthcare). Earlier Specialty: In Gujarat, she was known for her rigorous coverage in the beats of crime, law and policy, and social justice issues, including the 2002 riot cases, 2008 serial bomb blast case, 2016 flogging of Dalits in Una, among others. She has extensively covered health in the state, including being part of the team that revealed the segregation of wards at the state’s largest government hospital on lines of faith in April 2020. With Ahmedabad being a UNESCO heritage city, she has widely covered urban development and heritage issues, including the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent reporting from the Delhi High Court covers major political, constitutional, corporate, and public-interest legal battles: High-Profile Case Coverage She has extensively covered the various legal battles - including for compensation under the aegis of North East Delhi Riots Claims Commission - pertaining to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as well as 1984 anti-Sikh riots. She has also led coverage at the intersection of technology and governance, and its impact on the citizenry, from, and beyond courtrooms — such as the government’s stakeholder consultations for framing AI-Deepfake policy. Signature Style Sohini is recognized for her sustained reporting from courtrooms and beyond. She specialises in breaking down dense legal arguments to make legalese accessible for readers. Her transition from Gujarat to Delhi has seen her expand her coverage on regulatory, corporate and intellectual property law, while maintaining a strong commitment to human rights and lacuna in the criminal justice system. X (Twitter): @thanda_ghosh ... Read More