Thirty-six years after the brutal rape and murder of Kashmiri nurse Sarla Bhatt, the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency filed a chargesheet on Monday before a special TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities) court in Srinagar, naming banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik, who was then the ‘principal leader’ of the outfit, and Khursheed Ahmad Chalko as the leader of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. The masterminds behind the crime.
A senior police officer said the comprehensive investigation had been completed and the 737-page charge sheet had been submitted to the court.
The indictment stated that the murder was not an isolated act of violence but part of a larger institutional conspiracy orchestrated by the Kosovo Liberation Front.
An SIA spokesperson said the group targeted violence against the minority Kashmiri Pandit community to coordinate their systematic forced displacement from the Valley.
The co-conspirator is believed to be in PoK
According to police records, co-conspirator Chalko from Uri (Baramulla), who allegedly pulled the trigger, was currently on the run and believed to be residing in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Declaration proceedings have been initiated against him.
The three other fighters who allegedly participated in the execution – Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohamed Yusuf Sufi (known as Idris), and Ghulam Mohamed Tablo – were killed.
Yasin Malik is currently serving a life sentence in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for separate terrorism financing convictions.
Read also: Rape, murder and branded as ‘informant’: Yasin Malik is the main accused as Sarla Bhatt case reaches court after 36 years
The SIA, while referring to the contents of the charge sheet, said the investigation conclusively established that the killing was not an isolated act of violence but part of a larger terrorist conspiracy organized under the command and control of the JKLF.
“The investigation revealed the involvement of Muhammad Yasin Malik, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, along with Khurshid Ahmad Chalko, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Muhammad Yusuf Sufi alias Idris, and Ghulam Muhammad Tablo, in planning and carrying out the kidnapping and brutal murder.
While Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Muhammad Yusuf Sufi alias Idris, and Ghulam Muhammad Tablo are dead, Muhammad Yasin Malik is currently in judicial custody in another case.
“Legal proceedings, including declaration proceedings, have been initiated against fugitive terrorist Khurshid Ahmad Chalko (the man who pulled the trigger), who is believed to have infiltrated into Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the chargesheet said.
Murder and criminal conspiracy are among the charges framed
The charge sheet specified the offenses of murder and criminal conspiracy punishable under Sections 364, 341 and 302 read with Sections 34, 201 and 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), Sections 3(2), 3(3), 4 and 6 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA), and Sections 7 and 27 of the Arms Act. 1959.
“The investigation further established that the allegation portraying Sarla Bhatt as an ‘informant’ was completely false and constituted a fabricated pretext used by terrorists to justify a premeditated assassination.
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The charge sheet added that evidence collected during the investigation shows that the murder was part of an organized campaign of targeted terrorist violence launched by the Kashmir Liberation Front with the aim of spreading fear among innocent civilians, especially members of the Kashmiri Pandit community, creating conditions for their forced displacement from the Kashmir Valley and furthering the separatist agenda of the terrorist organisation.
Kidnapping, sexual assault, then murder
Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old nurse working at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Soura, was kidnapped from her hostel on April 15, 1990.
She was subjected to physical torture and sexual assault in captivity before being shot dead.
Her body was dumped in Malbagh, Srinagar, along with a JKLF memorandum falsely describing her as an “informant”.
For more than three decades, the case remained unresolved due to intimidation, violence and forced silence during the height of militancy.
The momentum shifted on March 18, 2024, when Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat referred the case to the SIA.
As part of the renewed investigation, the special intelligence agency launched coordinated raids at eight locations across Srinagar district last year, targeting properties and residences linked to former Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front operatives.
A police spokesman said at the time that searches under FIR No. 56/1990, registered at Negin Police Station, yielded incriminating forensic and documentary evidence, allowing investigators to reconstruct the three-decade-long conspiracy.
A similar campaign is underway to assassinate retired judge Neil Kant Janju in 1989, who was shot dead in a Srinagar market.
