NEW DELHI: JKLF chief Yasin Malik was on Saturday remanded to judicial custody, cutting short his custody granted earlier to NIA until April 22. Malik was admitted by NIA to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital around 3-4 days back after he complained of health problems.
Malik appeared before a magistrate who visited him at the hospital itself. He will now be lodged in Tihar jail after his discharge from the hospital, said sources.
TOI has learnt that Malik, who was arrested by NIA in the J&K terror funding case days after his organisation JKLF was banned as an “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, has not cooperated much with NIA during his custodial interrogation over the past few days. Sources said he seems familiar with ways to dodge police questioning and had been trying to bring up a health situation to force a review of his police custody, granted to NIA for 12 days on April 10.
NIA, not wanting to take any chances, decided to shift him from its headquarters to RML hospital a few days back. It said the reduced period of his custodial interrogation may not make much of a difference to the probe since he has not been cooperating anyway.
Incidentally, while Malik was kept in an air-conditioned facility at NIA, he will have no such comforts at Tihar. Sources said he may not get a solitary cell either. Meanwhile, his family back in Srinagar and his lawyer alleged that Malik was “very ill” as he had not been eating to protest against the callous approach of NIA.
Reported Times Of India