Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has provided security cover to advocate Monika Kohli, the standing counsel for the CBI in the High Court, who has been handling some sensitive cases related to terrorism, officials said on Sunday.
Kohli is the chief prosecutor in two key cases against Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik — the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in 1990.
She has been representing the CBI as a retainer counsel in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court since 2015 and had successfully opposed bail to Malik in the two “sensational crimes” which had taken place when militancy broke out in Kashmir Valley.
Charges have been framed against Malik in these two cases. Malik is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a separate case.
Officials said that Kohli has been provided personal security cover as a “precautionary measure” as she is handling high-profile cases, including those against Malik, and there is a possibility that the names of more people and organisations inimical to the country’s sovereignty may surface during the trials.
Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) got summons issued to prime witness Rubaiya Sayeed, who had been kidnapped in December 1989, for recording her statement. This was for the first time in 33 years that she was appearing before the court.
During the trial, Rubaiya Sayeed identified Malik as one of the kidnappers. Malik had recently demanded that he be allowed to appear physically before the Jammu court for cross-questioning the prosecution witnesses in the case.
CBI counsel Kohli also blocked bail of Hilal Rather, an accused in an alleged fraud case, for over a year and “exposed the use of fake medical certificates to get bail on health grounds”.
She was also appointed Amicus Curiae by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court during the COVID-19 pandemic.
