Court Frees Man One Day After CBI Arrest In 35-Year-Old Abduction Case
A local court in Jammu on Tuesday released Shafat Ahmad Shangloo, just a day after the CBI arrested him for his alleged role in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The CBI had claimed that Shangloo had been an absconder for 36 years and accused him of helping JKLF militants in the high-profile abduction.
The agency even announced that he had “conspired with Yasin Malik and others” in planning the kidnapping, and sought his custody for further questioning.
However, when Shangloo was produced before the court, the case took an unexpected turn. The court found that the CBI itself had exonerated Shangloo during the original investigation under Section 169 of the CrPC.
His name also did not appear anywhere in the agency’s chargesheet filed decades ago.
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With no evidence on record linking him to the case, the court rejected the CBI’s plea for custody and ordered his immediate release.
Shangloo’s counsel, advocate Anil Raina, said the agency had “nothing at all” against his client. “When the CBI sought custody, the court rejected the request after finding no mention of Shangloo in the chargesheet,” he said.
The sudden arrest and the even quicker release have raised questions about procedural lapses in one of India’s most sensitive terror-related cases.
The kidnapping of 23-year-old intern doctor Rubaiya Sayeed on December 8, 1989, triggered a nationwide political storm.
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She was abducted by JKLF militants and released five days later after the government freed five jailed terrorists — a decision that remains deeply controversial.
Over the years, the CBI has chargesheeted around two dozen people, and a TADA court framed charges against 10 accused in 2021, including JKLF chief Yasin Malik. Several others were declared absconders, among them, according to the CBI, was Shangloo.
