‘Not named’: Special court sets free alleged accused in Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping

Jammu: A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Shafat Ahmad Shangloo in connection with the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, a special court on Tuesday set him free, by refusing the agency’s plea for his custody for questioning.

The court refused to grant Shangloo’s custody to the CBI for questioning in connection with the kidnapping of Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, that occurred on December 8, 1989 and ended after five days with the release of five dreaded JKLF terrorists by authorities.

Rejecting the CBI plea, the special court noted that there was no mention of him in the charge sheet filed by the agency.

The agency had sought the custody of Shangloo, arrested in the 35-year-old case, in the TADA court in Jammu, claiming that he had been absconding all these years.

Arrested on Monday by the CBI for allegedly being part of a conspiracy hatched by members of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) to kidnap Rubaiya Sayeed, Shafat carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, according to the CBI counsel.

Shafat is alleged to be a close confidant of JKLF chief Yasin Malik.

“We have sought custody of the accused,” CBI lawyer S.K. Bhat has said before the court ordered his release.

In a statement on Monday after the arrest, the CBI said Shangloo conspired with Malik and others in committing offences under various sections of the Ranbir Penal Code and the TADA Act in 1989.

“The absconder was carrying a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head and was produced before the TADA Court in Jammu within the stipulated time as per law,” a CBI spokesperson said.

According to officials, Shangloo was allegedly an office bearer of JKLF and handled its finances. The CBI, along with Jammu and Kashmir Police, arrested Shangloo from his residence in the Nishat area of Srinagar on Monday.

Malik, who is serving a life sentence in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a terror funding case, is not being produced physically in court due to a Ministry of Home Affairs order restricting his movement.

He was, however, identified by Rubaiya Sayeed as her key abductor in 1989.

IANS