JKLF chief Yasin Malik pleads not guilty in 1990 Kashmiri Pandit murder case, seeks death penalty

Jailed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik has filed a 25-page affidavit before a special court, pleading not guilty to charges in the 1990 murder of Kashmiri Pandit woman Sarla Bhat, while announcing he will no longer contest the trial and requesting the death penalty.

Malik, 60, lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail, asserted that the charges against him read like a "fabricated story" rather than a genuine police investigation, claiming the case was constructed decades later to frame him. He maintained his innocence, stating his decision not to contest proceedings should not be treated as an admission of guilt.

The affidavit comes after the State Investigating Agency (SIA) filed a charge sheet on June 29 naming Malik in Bhat's killing, which occurred on April 19, 1990. Malik refuted the allegations as a "subsequent invention," arguing that in April 1990 he was critically injured after a fall during a BSF raid at Narwara, was in a coma, and was even reported dead by some media outlets.

He questioned how a person unconscious and fighting for survival could have orchestrated the killing. Malik also rejected claims that Bhat was a security informer, calling her an innocent civilian, and expressed shock at being named after more than three decades.

In the affidavit, Malik also announced his decision to dissolve his marriage with wife Mushaal Hussein Mullick, citing his prolonged incarceration and inability to communicate with family over eight years. He wrote to her, "Before I will be hanged, I have taken the decision to separate you from the bond of our Nikah," and advised his daughter to call her grandparents daily.

Malik described the document as his "final statement of conscience," ending with verses from poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and passages from the Quran, saying, "I bear no hatred towards any individual. I do not seek revenge against anyone."