The Evening Wrap: Yasin Malik awarded life imprisonment in terror funding case

A Delhi court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik in a terror funding case. Special Judge Praveen Singh also awarded varying jail terms for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also imposed a fine of over ₹10 lakh on Malik. 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 the terrorist act) of the UAPA. All the sentences will run concurrently. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had, however, sought death penalty before the Delhi court for Malik, who had earlier pleaded guilty to all the charges, including those under the UAPA, court sources said. The agency told Justice Singh in an in-chamber proceedings that Malik was responsible for the Kashmiri exodus. On the point of sentence, sources said that Malik submitted that he would not “beg” for mercy, and that court could decide at its discretion. The amicus curiae appointed by the court to assist Malik, sought minimum punishment, i.e., life imprisonment in the matter. Malik, meanwhile, said that if Indian Intelligence can prove that he had been involved in any terrorist activity or violence in 28 years, then he would retire from politics, and will also accept the hanging. The judge, however, said that since he has already been convicted, there was no point in arguing on the facts of the case and that he was already given the opportunity. The court had on May 19 convicted Malik and had directed the NIA authorities to assess his financial situation to determine the amount of fine likely to be imposed. Malik had on May 10 told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him that included sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act), and 20 (being member of terrorist gang or organisation) of the UAPA and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the IPC. The court had, meanwhile, formally framed the charges against Kashmiri separatist leaders including Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, Md Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Md Akbar Khanday, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Abdul Rashid Sheikh, and Naval Kishore Kapoor. The charge sheet was also filed against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, who have been declared proclaimed offenders (PO) in the case. All Texas school shooting victims were in same room, says official A law enforcement official said all those killed at a Texas elementary school were in the same classroom. Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Christopher Olivarez said that all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in Tuesday’s shooting. An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom at a Texas elementary school in a rampage that also left two adults dead, officials said, adding to a gruesome, years-long series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. The attacker was killed by a Border Patrol agent who rushed into the school without waiting for backup, according to a law enforcement official. Tuesday’s assault at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Hours after the attack, families were still awaiting word on their children. At the town civic center where some gathered, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing. “No! Please, no!” one man yelled as he embraced another man. The attack was the latest grim moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres, coming just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket. And the prospects for any reform of the nation’s gun regulations seemed as dim, if not dimmer, than in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths. But President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight, calling for new gun restrictions in an address to the nation hours after the attack. “As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?” Biden asked. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” It was not immediately clear how many people in all were wounded, but the school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, said there were “several injuries.” Staff members in scrubs and devastated victims’ relatives could be seen weeping as they walked out of Uvalde Memorial Hospital, which said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition. Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but they identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Law enforcement officials said he acted alone. Uvalde, home to about 16,000 people, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary, which has nearly 600 students in second, third and fourth grades, is in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes. The attack came as the school was counting down to the last days of the school year with a series of themed days. Tuesday was to be “Footloose and Fancy,” with students wearing nice outfits. Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, according to state Senator Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police. He noted that the gunman “suggested the kids should watch out,” and that he had bought two “assault weapons” after turning 18. Before heading to the school, Ramos shot his grandmother, Gutierrez said. Other officials said that the grandmother survived and was being treated, though her condition was not known. Investigators believe Ramos posted photos on Instagram of two guns he used in the shooting, and they were examining whether he made statements online in the hours before the assault, a law enforcement official said. Law enforcement officers were serving multiple search warrants Tuesday night and gathering telephone and other records, the official said. Investigators were also attempting to contact Ramos’ relatives and were tracing the firearms. The attack began about 11:30 a.m., when the gunman crashed his car outside the school and ran into the building, according to Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. A resident who heard the crash called 911, and two local police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter. Both officers were shot. It was not immediately clear where on the campus that confrontation occurred or how much time elapsed before more authorities arrived on the scene. One Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk about it. The agent was wounded but able to walk out of the school, the law enforcement official said. Meanwhile, teams of Border Patrol agents raced to the school, including 10 to 15 members of a SWAT-like tactical and counterterrorism unit, said Jason Owens, a top regional official with the Border Patrol. He said some area agents have children at Robb Elementary. “It hit home for everybody,” he said. The tragedy in Uvalde was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and it added to a grim tally in the state, which has been the site of some of the deadliest shootings in the U.S. over the past five years. In 2018, a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area. A year before that, a gunman at a Texas church killed more than two dozen people during a Sunday service in the small town of Sutherland Springs. In 2019, another gunman at a Walmart in El Paso killed 23 people in a racist attack targeting Hispanics. The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston. Abbott and both of Texas’ U.S. senators were among elected Republican officials who were the scheduled speakers at a Friday leadership forum sponsored by the NRA’s lobbying arm. In the years since Sandy Hook, the gun control debate in Congress has waxed and waned. Efforts by lawmakers to change U.S. gun policies in any significant way have consistently faced roadblocks from Republicans and the influence of outside groups such as the NRA. A year after Sandy Hook, Sens. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Patrick J. Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, negotiated a bipartisan proposal to expand the nation’s background check system. But the measure failed in a Senate vote, without enough support to clear a 60-vote filibuster hurdle. Kapil Sibal says he has quit Congress, files Rajya Sabha nomination papers with Samajwadi Party backing Two years after rebelling against the leadership of the Gandhis, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday made his decision to quit the Congress while filing his nomination for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election as an independent candidate, supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP). “I had tendered my resignation on May 16,” he told reporters in Lucknow, adding, “I have filed my nomination as an independent candidate. It is important to be an independent voice in Parliament. If an independent voice speaks up then people will believe it is not linked to any political party”. Accompanying him for the filing of the nomination papers, SP chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said, “... We hope that the questions in the country, such as rising unemployment, inflation, failing law and order, our borders are not safe...on several such big issues Sibal ji will be able to present the SP’s and his views”. Sibal’s is the second high profile exit that happened soon after the Udaipur Chintan Shivir and followed former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar’s departure from the Congress to join the BJP. In the last few months, several senior leaders such as Ashwani Kumar, R.P.N Singh and Shatrughan Sinha have quit the party. Among the most high profile Ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government between 2004 and 2014, Sibal joined the G-23 or the ginger group that wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020, asking for “collective leadership and internal reforms”. The high profile lawyer, who once defended the Congress in various courts and often in the media as a Minister, questioned the party’s style of functioning as it continued to suffer repeated electoral setbacks in Assembly elections after two consecutive Lok Sabha defeats. The tipping point came last September when he told reporters at a press conference that “the Congress didn’t have a full-time president and none knew who was taking important decisions without any accountability”. Though Sibal did not spell it out, the comment was seen as an attack on former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who, many believed, was taking decisions in the party despite stepping down from the post in May 2019. Hours later, party workers of Chandni Chowk, a constituency that Sibal represented earlier, threw “tomatoes and eggs” at his residence. While the leadership had reached out to G-23 in separate meetings, Sibal carefully avoided them, including the three-day Udaipur Chintan Shivir that was meant to brainstorm Congress’s revival. Plea for nod to prayers at ‘Shivling’ in Gyanvapi complex transferred to fast-track court A district court in Varanasi on May 25 transferred a petition seeking permission to worship a “Shivling” claimed to have been found in the Gyanvapi complex during a videography survey to a fast-track court for hearing on May 30. District court judge A.K. Vishevesh ordered the transfer of the suit to a fast-track court, government counsel Rana Sanjeev Singh said. The plea was filed on behalf of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh. The petition filed by Kiran Singh, wife of Sangh president Jitendra Singh Bisen and its general secretary, on May 24 sought a ban on the entry of Muslims into the complex, handing over the complex to it and permission to offer prayers at the “Shivling”. On a request by the plaintiffs, the court had agreed to hear the third aspect — permission to offer prayers at the Shivling — on May 25. On May 24, the judge had fixed May 26 for hearing on the maintainability of the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex case as per the directions of the Supreme Court. In Brief The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money-laundering case against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and others in the alleged scam pertaining to the issuance of visa to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P. Chidambaram was the Home Minister, officials said on May 25. “The Federal Agency has filed its case under the criminal Sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a recent first information report by the CBI in the same case,” they said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 25 MAY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( NIA court awards life imprisonment to Yasin Malik in terror funding case A Delhi court on Wednesday [awarded life imprisonment to Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik]( in a [terror funding case](. Special Judge Praveen Singh also awarded varying jail terms for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also imposed a fine of over ₹10 lakh on Malik. 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 the terrorist act) of the UAPA. All the sentences will run concurrently. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had, however, sought death penalty before the Delhi court for Malik, who had earlier pleaded guilty to all the charges, including those under the UAPA, court sources said. The agency told Justice Singh in an in-chamber proceedings that Malik was responsible for the Kashmiri exodus. [JKLF leader Yasin Malik is brought to the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi on May 25, 2022.] On the point of sentence, sources said that Malik submitted that he would not “beg” for mercy, and that court could decide at its discretion. The amicus curiae appointed by the court to assist Malik, sought minimum punishment, i.e., life imprisonment in the matter. Malik, meanwhile, said that if Indian Intelligence can prove that he had been involved in any terrorist activity or violence in 28 years, then he would retire from politics, and will also accept the hanging. The judge, however, said that since he has already been convicted, there was no point in arguing on the facts of the case and that he was already given the opportunity. The court had on May 19 convicted Malik and had directed the NIA authorities to assess his financial situation to determine the amount of fine likely to be imposed. Malik had on May 10 told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him that included sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act), and 20 (being member of terrorist gang or organisation) of the UAPA and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the IPC.  The court had, meanwhile, formally framed the charges against Kashmiri separatist leaders including Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, Md Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Md Akbar Khanday, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Abdul Rashid Sheikh, and Naval Kishore Kapoor. The charge sheet was also filed against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, who have been declared proclaimed offenders (PO) in the case. All Texas school shooting victims were in same room, says official A law enforcement official said all those [killed at a Texas elementary school]( were [in the same classroom](. Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Christopher Olivarez said that all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in Tuesday’s shooting. An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom at a Texas elementary school in a rampage that also left two adults dead, officials said, adding to a gruesome, years-long series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. [People gather at Robb Elementary School the scene of a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 25, 2022. ] The attacker was killed by a Border Patrol agent who rushed into the school without waiting for backup, according to a law enforcement official. Tuesday’s assault at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Hours after the attack, families were still awaiting word on their children. At the town civic center where some gathered, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing. “No! Please, no!” one man yelled as he embraced another man. The attack was the latest grim moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres, coming just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket. And the prospects for any reform of the nation’s gun regulations seemed as dim, if not dimmer, than in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths. But President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight, calling for new gun restrictions in an address to the nation hours after the attack. “As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?” Biden asked. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” It was not immediately clear how many people in all were wounded, but the school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, said there were “several injuries.” Staff members in scrubs and devastated victims’ relatives could be seen weeping as they walked out of Uvalde Memorial Hospital, which said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition. Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but they identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Law enforcement officials said he acted alone. Uvalde, home to about 16,000 people, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary, which has nearly 600 students in second, third and fourth grades, is in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes. The attack came as the school was counting down to the last days of the school year with a series of themed days. Tuesday was to be “Footloose and Fancy,” with students wearing nice outfits. Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, according to state Senator Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police. He noted that the gunman “suggested the kids should watch out,” and that he had bought two “assault weapons” after turning 18. Before heading to the school, Ramos shot his grandmother, Gutierrez said. Other officials said that the grandmother survived and was being treated, though her condition was not known. Investigators believe Ramos posted photos on Instagram of two guns he used in the shooting, and they were examining whether he made statements online in the hours before the assault, a law enforcement official said. Law enforcement officers were serving multiple search warrants Tuesday night and gathering telephone and other records, the official said. Investigators were also attempting to contact Ramos’ relatives and were tracing the firearms. The attack began about 11:30 a.m., when the gunman crashed his car outside the school and ran into the building, according to Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. A resident who heard the crash called 911, and two local police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter. Both officers were shot. It was not immediately clear where on the campus that confrontation occurred or how much time elapsed before more authorities arrived on the scene. One Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk about it. The agent was wounded but able to walk out of the school, the law enforcement official said. Meanwhile, teams of Border Patrol agents raced to the school, including 10 to 15 members of a SWAT-like tactical and counterterrorism unit, said Jason Owens, a top regional official with the Border Patrol. He said some area agents have children at Robb Elementary. “It hit home for everybody,” he said. The tragedy in Uvalde was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and it added to a grim tally in the state, which has been the site of some of the deadliest shootings in the U.S. over the past five years. In 2018, a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area. A year before that, a gunman at a Texas church killed more than two dozen people during a Sunday service in the small town of Sutherland Springs. In 2019, another gunman at a Walmart in El Paso killed 23 people in a racist attack targeting Hispanics. The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston. Abbott and both of Texas’ U.S. senators were among elected Republican officials who were the scheduled speakers at a Friday leadership forum sponsored by the NRA’s lobbying arm. In the years since Sandy Hook, the gun control debate in Congress has waxed and waned. Efforts by lawmakers to change U.S. gun policies in any significant way have consistently faced roadblocks from Republicans and the influence of outside groups such as the NRA. A year after Sandy Hook, Sens. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Patrick J. Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, negotiated a bipartisan proposal to expand the nation’s background check system. But the measure failed in a Senate vote, without enough support to clear a 60-vote filibuster hurdle. Kapil Sibal says he has quit Congress, files Rajya Sabha nomination papers with Samajwadi Party backing Two years after rebelling against the leadership of the Gandhis, former Union Minister [Kapil Sibal on Wednesday made his decision to quit the Congress]( while filing his nomination for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election as an independent candidate, supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP). “I had tendered my resignation on May 16,” he told reporters in Lucknow, adding, “I have filed my nomination as an independent candidate. It is important to be an independent voice in Parliament. If an independent voice speaks up then people will believe it is not linked to any political party”. Accompanying him for the filing of the nomination papers, SP chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said, “... We hope that the questions in the country, such as rising unemployment, inflation, failing law and order, our borders are not safe...on several such big issues Sibal ji will be able to present the SP’s and his views”. Sibal’s is the second high profile exit that happened soon after the Udaipur Chintan Shivir and followed former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar’s departure from the Congress to join the BJP. In the last few months, several senior leaders such as Ashwani Kumar, R.P.N Singh and Shatrughan Sinha have quit the party. Among the most high profile Ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government between 2004 and 2014, Sibal joined the G-23 or the ginger group that wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020, asking for “collective leadership and internal reforms”. The high profile lawyer, who once defended the Congress in various courts and often in the media as a Minister, questioned the party’s style of functioning as it continued to suffer repeated electoral setbacks in Assembly elections after two consecutive Lok Sabha defeats. The tipping point came last September when he told reporters at a press conference that “the Congress didn’t have a full-time president and none knew who was taking important decisions without any accountability”. Though Sibal did not spell it out, the comment was seen as an attack on former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who, many believed, was taking decisions in the party despite stepping down from the post in May 2019. Hours later, party workers of Chandni Chowk, a constituency that Sibal represented earlier, threw “tomatoes and eggs” at his residence. While the leadership had reached out to G-23 in separate meetings, Sibal carefully avoided them, including the three-day Udaipur Chintan Shivir that was meant to brainstorm Congress’s revival. Plea for nod to prayers at ‘Shivling’ in Gyanvapi complex transferred to fast-track court A district court in Varanasi on May 25 [transferred a petition seeking permission to worship a “Shivling” claimed to have been found in the Gyanvapi complex]( during a videography survey to a fast-track court for hearing on May 30. District court judge A.K. Vishevesh ordered the transfer of the suit to a fast-track court, government counsel Rana Sanjeev Singh said. The plea was filed on behalf of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh. The petition filed by Kiran Singh, wife of Sangh president Jitendra Singh Bisen and its general secretary, on May 24 sought a ban on the entry of Muslims into the complex, handing over the complex to it and permission to offer prayers at the “Shivling”. On a request by the plaintiffs, the court had agreed to hear the third aspect — permission to offer prayers at the Shivling — on May 25. On May 24, the judge had fixed May 26 for hearing on the maintainability of the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex case as per the directions of the Supreme Court. In Brief The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has [registered a money-laundering case against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram]( and others in the alleged scam pertaining to the issuance of visa to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P. Chidambaram was the Home Minister, officials said on May 25. “The Federal Agency has filed its case under the criminal Sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a recent first information report by the CBI in the same case,” they said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow  Today’s Top Picks [[Ice cream for ₹2: This Chennai outlet is a hit this summer] Ice cream for ₹2: This Chennai outlet is a hit this summer]( [[Book on plight of Kerala’s temple elephants hits the shelves] Book on plight of Kerala’s temple elephants hits the shelves]( [[‘Top Gun: Maverick’ movie review: Tom Cruise delivers box-office magic of the best kind] ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ movie review: Tom Cruise delivers box-office magic of the best kind]( [[‘Stranger Things Season 4, Vol 1’ review: All aboard the Upside Down for yet another merry round] ‘Stranger Things Season 4, Vol 1’ review: All aboard the Upside Down for yet another merry round]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](