A NIA court in Delhi has awarded life imprisonment to Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik, who had earlier pleaded guilty to all charges, including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), in a terror funding case.

The court had earlier on 19 May convicted Malik in the case but reserved the verdict on quantum of sentence.

The court had earlier directed NIA authorities to assess Malik's financial situation to determine the amount of fine to be imposed and posted the matter for arguments on quantum of sentence on May 25.

Malik had told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him that included section 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for 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 earlier also 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.