SRINAGAR, Sept. 4 -- Jailed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik has denied involvement in the murder of Kashmiri Pandit woman Sarla Bhat and submitted a 25-page affidavit before a special court here, pleading not guilty while refusing to contest the trial and seeking capital punishment.
Malik, 60, who is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, claimed the charges against him were a "subsequent invention" and described the prosecution's case as a fabricated narrative developed decades after the 1990 killing to falsely implicate him.
The affidavit was submitted after the State Investigating Agency (SIA) filed a chargesheet on June 29 in connection with Bhat's murder on April 19, 1990. Malik said he had decided not to ...