NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that taking names of senior politicians and bureaucrats does not absolve separatist leader Yasin Malik or negate his links with militants like Hafiz Saeed.

The NIA filed a rejoinder to Malik’s reply to its plea for enhancing his life sentence in a terror-funding case to death penalty and asserted that the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief was “well connected with multiple terrorist organizations and with supporters of the terrorist organization LeT” and that he dropped names of senior politicians, media personnel, foreign delegates and bureaucrats to gain popularity and draw public sympathy.

The NIA stated that Mailk cannot be permitted to “revisit” the matter when the charges against him have already culminated into his conviction and ample opportunity was given to him to raise objections.