Jammu: A special court released Shafat Ahmed Shangloo a day after his arrest in the 1989 Rubaiyya Sayeed kidnapping case. The court dismissed the CBI’s request for his custodial interrogation and said the agency had not named him in the charge sheet filed earlier. The decision dealt a setback to the CBI, which argued that Shangloo had absconded for decades.
The CBI arrested Shangloo on Monday from his home in the Nishat area of Srinagar. The agency said he was part of a conspiracy linked to the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front during the kidnapping of Rubaiyya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. The kidnapping took place on December 8, 1989 and ended after five days when authorities released five detained JKLF members.
According to the CBI, Shangloo was an office bearer of the JKLF at the time and handled finances for the group. The agency said he carried a ten lakh rupee reward and had worked closely with JKLF chief Yasin Malik. Shangloo was produced before the TADA court after his arrest within the mandated time.
The CBI told the court it needed custody to question him about his role in planning and executing the alleged conspiracy. The court rejected the plea and ordered his release. Officials said the arrest formed part of ongoing efforts to complete proceedings in older terror related cases. Malik is serving a sentence in Tihar Jail in a separate terror funding case and is not being produced physically in court due to restrictions by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
