Monika Kohli appointed chief prosecutor in Yasin Malik case

The CBI has appointed its senior counsel Monika Kohli as the chief prosecutor after framing of charges against JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik in the much-publicised cases related to the abduction of former union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter, and assassination of four IAF personnel in Srinagar three decades ago, officials said.

Kohli, a leading lawyer, has been representing the CBI as a retainer counsel in the High Court for the last seven years and had successfully opposed bail to Malik in the two sensational cases which had taken place in 1989-90 when militancy broke out in the valley.

The officials said the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has conveyed the approval of the competent authority for engagement of Kohli as senior special prosecutor and S K Bhat (retired ALA/CBI) as special public prosecutor in place of Pavitar Singh Bhardwaj and Bansi Lal Bhat for a period of three years.

Malik is presently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in April 2019 in connection with a terror funding case, a month after his group was banned by the central government.

A special TADA court on Monday framed charges against Malik and nine others in the kidnapping case of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. She was kidnapped by JKLF members on December 8, 1989, from Srinagar to secure the release of their associates lodged in different jails. In March last year, the special TADA court had framed charges against Malik and six others in another case related to the gunning down of four IAF personnel on the outskirts of Srinagar in January 1990.

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