Yasin Malik's lawyer withdraws from Sarla Bhat murder trial

The lawyer representing jailed separatist leader Yasin Malik filed a request to withdraw from the 1990 Sarla Bhat murder trial.

Malik, leader of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, who has been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2019, in a submission before the Additional Sessions Judge TADA/POTA court in Srinagar earlier this month saying he would not contest the trial proceedings in the Bhat murder case. The State Investigation Agency has sought capital punishment in the case involving the abduction and killing of nurse Bhat. In his submission Malik has stated that “the present proceedings have arisen out of political circumstances and decisions and he (Malik) believed that he has been falsely implicated in the present case”. Malik had clarified that his decision shall not be treated as an admission of guilt or acceptance of the allegations made against him.

In context of Malik's decision and submission before the court his lawyer Abu Adil Pandit, requested to withdraw from Bhat's case.


“In consequence of the aforesaid decision and the clear instructions received from the accused, the undersigned does not have further instructions to continue representing him in the present proceedings and, therefore, respectfully seeks the leave of this court to cease representation in the present case”. The next date of hearing in the case is October 17.

Pandit further said that the request should not, be construed, treated or relied upon as an admission of any fact, allegation, charge, circumstance or contention forming part of the case, nor as an admission of guilt or acceptance of the allegations against the accused.

He clarified that the application was strictly confined to the proceedings pending before the court and should have no bearing upon the separate proceedings in which he continued to represent Malik.

“For the avoidance of any ambiguity, the undersigned specifically places on record that his representation shall continue in the two separate CBI proceedings pending before the TADA Court at Jammu,” Pandit said in the application.

The two cases pending against Malik in Jammu court involve the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed and the 1990 killing of four Indian Air Force personnel.

“That the authority and representation of the undersigned in the aforesaid two CBI proceedings shall remain unaffected. The present application is limited solely to the proceedings pending before this court,” said Pandit.