(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested an 'absconder' in the high-profile kidnapping of Rubaiyya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, a case that goes back over 35 years.

The person arrested on Monday, identified as one Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, is alleged to be a close confidant of Yasin Malik, the chief of the banned Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) terror group.

Shangloo was arrested from his residence in the Nishat area of Srinagar in a joint operation by the CBI and the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

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"The said accused Shangloo conspired with Yasin Malik and others in committing a crime under various sections of Ranbir Penal Code and TADA Act during the Year 1989," the CBI said in a statement on Monday.

"The absconder is carrying a reward of Rs. 10 lakh on his head. He will be produced before the TADA Court Jammu, within the stipulated time as per law," the federal probe agency added.

According to a report by news agency ANI, which quoted CBI officials, Shangloo was allegedly an office bearer of the JKLF, handling the group's finances.

Meanwhile, JKLF chief Malik, who has been attending court hearings via video conferencing due to restrictions imposed on his movement, has been identified as a co-conspirator in the case by eyewitnesses, including by Rubaiyya Sayeed.

The JKLF leader is currently serving a prison term in Delhi's Tihar Jail in a terror financing case.

Besides Malik, four others have also been identified by Sayeed, reported ANI.

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On 8 December 1989, Rubaiyya Sayeed was abducted from near the Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar.

Five days after her abduction, Sayeed was freed when the then V P Singh government, which was supported by the BJP at the Centre, released five terrorists in exchange for the hostage's release.

Sayeed, who currently resides in Tamil Nadu, is listed as a prosecution witness in the case by the CBI, which took over the investigation in 1990.

JKLF chief Malik, meanwhile, is serving a prison sentence handed out by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in May last year after his arrest in early 2019 in connection with a 2017 terror financing case.

Malik, along with nine others, have also been charged in Sayeed's kidnapping case by a special TADA court.

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