Delhi Prison officials have kept Kashmiri separatist leader, Yasin Malik, in a separate cell under heavy security, a day after a Delhi court awarded life imprisonment to him in a terror funding case.
According to a senior prison official, Malik has been kept in a separate cell in jail number seven under heavy security and he may not be assigned any work.
“His security will be regularly monitored and reviewed from time to time. Malik will also not be entitled to any parole or furlough since he is a convict in a case of terror funding,” he said adding that officials are keeping eye on him through CCTV cameras.
Even before being awarded life imprisonment, Malik was kept in a separate cell where he stayed alone in jail number seven. Tihar’s jail number seven has housed several high-profile prisoners, including former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, former Union Minister A Raja, Sahara head Subrata Roy and Christian Michel.
A Delhi court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to Malik in a terror funding case, saying the crimes committed by him struck at the "heart of the idea of India" and were intended to forcefully secede Jammu & Kashmir from the Union of India.
Special Judge Praveen Singh awarded varying jail terms to Malik for offences under the stringent anti-terror law--Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the IPC, rejecting the NIA's plea for capital punishment.
The names -- Jack, John and Alpha among others — were given to important protected witnesses, with hidden identities for their safety, in the terror funding case in which National Investigation Agency (NIA) had seized around 600 electronic devices during its raids at 70 places.
There were nearly four dozen protected witnesses but code names were given only to a select few, who could be of help in making a watertight case, officials privy to the developments of the case said.
The case was probed by a NIA team led by Inspector General Anil Shukla, a 1996-batch IPS officer from AGMUT cadre, with the then Director Sharad Kumar heading the organisation.
According to the Supreme Court, life imprisonment means incarceration till the last breath, unless the sentence is commuted by the authorities.
