STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court was informed on Wednesday that separatist leader Yasin Malik, who is serving life sentence in a terror funding case, was examined by doctors at AIIMS and has been provided necessary medical treatment.
The counsel for the central government and the Director General of Prisons (Tihar Jail) also submitted that requisite medical treatment will be provided to Malik as and when required.
Malik has claimed that he suffers from serious cardiac and kidney problems.
Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta recorded the statement made by the counsel and disposed of Malik’s petition in which he sought a direction to authorities to produce the record of his treatment and refer him to AIIMS or any private super-specialty hospital here or in Jammu and Kashmir for proper and necessary treatment as he was suffering from serious cardiac and kidney ailments.
Rajat Nair, representing the Centre and DG (Prisons), submitted that Malik was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), examined by doctors and discharged. He said necessary medical treatment has been accorded to the inmate.
He said the status report has been filed in pursuance to the court order and added that authorities are duty bound to provide necessary treatment to inmates.
The high court also said that the copy of the order be sent to the jail superintendent concerned for intimation and compliance.
The high court had on February 2 directed the Superintendent of the Tihar Jail to ensure proper medical treatment to Malik.
The counsel for the authorities had earlier submitted before the court that the petition suffered from serious suppression of facts and that Malik was refusing treatment being given to him by authorities.
The petition was filed on behalf of Malik through his mother Aatika Malik.
Nair had contended that Malik was a “very high risk security prisoner”, and therefore, the medical team can be brought in the jail itself.
He had contended that a medical board was constituted by AIIMS. However, Malik refused to be examined by them through video-conferencing in jail as the inmate wanted to go to the hospital physically.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief was awarded life imprisonment by a trial court here on May 24, 2022, that held him guilty for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court seeking enhancement of the sentence from life term to death penalty, which is the maximum punishment for the offence.
The life term was awarded for two offences – section 121 (waging war against government of India) of the IPC and section 17 (raising funds for terrorist act) of the UAPA.
The court had awarded Malik a 10-year jail term each under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against the government of India) of the IPC and sections 15 (terrorism), 18 (conspiracy for terrorism) and 20 (being a member of terror organisation) of the UAPA.
