Rubaiya Sayeed Kidnapping Case: Jammu TADA Court Orders Release Of Former JKLF Activist

SRINAGAR: In a significant setback to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a special anti-terror court in Jammu on Tuesday refused to grant custody of Shafat Ahmad Shangloo, a former Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) activist arrested a day earlier in connection with the sensational 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

The Court of the 3rd Additional District and Sessions Judge (TADA/POTA), Jammu, rejected the CBI’s plea after examining the chargesheet and finding no incriminating material against the accused. Shangloo, who had been produced before the court following his arrest on Monday in Srinagar, was ordered to be released immediately.

Shangloo’s counsel, Advocate Anil Raina, told reporters outside the court. “When the CBI sought remand, the court carefully perused the chargesheet and observed that there is absolutely nothing against my client. The Investigating Officer had already given him the benefit during the probe, stating that no evidence emerged against him. Accordingly, the court declined custody and ordered his release.”

Raina added that with the rejection of the remand application, there would be no further investigation or proceedings against Shangloo in the 35-year-old case.

Speaking briefly to the media after walking free, the 59-year-old Shangloo said, “The court has done justice to me. This is the victory of truth.”

Shangloo, a resident of Srinagar’s Ishber Nishat area, was taken into custody by a CBI team on Monday. According to the CBI, he carried a reward of ₹10 lakh on his head and was declared an absconder in the case.

Shangloo’s family strongly refuted the CBI’s portrayal of him as an “absconder”, asserting that for the past three decades he had been openly living in Srinagar, running his business, and actively participating in social and community circles. “He never went underground, never changed his name, and never left Kashmir,” a family member told reporters outside the court. “His home and business in Nishat were known to everyone, he was on social media, attended weddings and functions like any ordinary citizen, and the local police were fully aware of his whereabouts. To suddenly brand him an absconder after 35 years and put a ₹10 lakh reward on him is absurd.” The family described the CBI’s claim as baseless and insisted that Shangloo had led a transparent life with no attempt to evade authorities, making the agency’s narrative “nothing but trash”.

The CBI alleged that he was a close confidant of JKLF chief Muhammad Yasin Malik, served as an office-bearer of the banned outfit, handled its finances, and was part of the larger conspiracy behind the December 8, 1989, abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed.

At the time, 23-year-old Rubaiya, a medical intern at Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar, was kidnapped by JKLF militants while returning home in a minibus. The abduction triggered a major crisis for the newly formed V.P. Singh government, in which her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had taken oath as India’s first Muslim Home Minister just days earlier.

After five days of intense negotiations, Rubaiya was released on December 13, 1989, in exchange for five jailed JKLF militants — a swap that many, including the then J&K Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, later described as a grave mistake that gave a massive fillip to militancy in the Valley. Dr Abdullah had strongly opposed the exchange and subsequently alleged that his government was threatened with dismissal by the Centre if the militants were not freed.

The trial in the designated TADA court in Jammu, which began in 1990, has seen renewed activity in recent years. In July 2022, Rubaiya Sayeed appeared as a prosecution witness and identified Yasin Malik as one of her abductors. Another eyewitness in February 2023 identified both Malik and co-accused Mohammad Zaman in connection with the kidnapping.

Yasin Malik, who is currently serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail in a separate terror-funding case convicted by an NIA court in 2022, has been appearing via video conferencing. Charges were formally framed by the CBI against Malik and nine others in January 2021.Three other JKLF activists arrested earlier in the case — Showkat Ahmed Bakshi, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, and Mohammad Iqbal Gandroo — were granted bail in 1999 after spending nine years in jail.

Rubaiya Sayeed now lives with her family in Tamil Nadu, far from the turmoil of the Valley.

With Tuesday’s order clearing Shangloo for lack of evidence, the CBI’s efforts to bring all alleged conspirators to justice in one of Kashmir’s most high-profile militancy-era cases suffered a jolt, even as the trial against the remaining accused, led by Yasin Malik, continues.