NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Friday approached the Delhi High Court seeking death penalty for separatist leader Yasin Malik, who was awarded life term by a trial court here in a terror funding case.

The plea by the agency has been listed for hearing on May 29 before a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh.

On May 24, 2022, a trial court here had awarded life imprisonment to Malik, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief, after holding him guilty for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the IPC.

“These crimes were intended to strike at the heart of the idea of India and intended to forcefully secede J&K from UOI. The crime becomes more serious as it was committed with the assistance of foreign powers and designated terrorists. The seriousness of the crime is further increased by the fact that it was committed behind the smokescreen of an alleged peaceful political movement,” the trial court had said.

The life term was awarded for two offences - section 121 (waging war against the government of India) of IPC and section 17 (raising funds for terrorist act) of the UAPA.

However, though the maximum punishment for such an offence is death penalty, the trial court rejected the NIA’s plea for capital punishment, noting that the case was not the “rarest of rare”, warranting death penalty.

According to the Supreme Court, life imprisonment means incarceration till the last breath, unless the sentence is commuted by the authorities.