New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Monday granted two-day custody parole to Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid to attend the ongoing Parliament session.
Engineer Rashid, who won the Lok Sabha election from J&K’s Baramulla constituency by defeating National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah (now Chief Minister) by over two lakh votes while staying in Tihar Jail, is accused in a terror funding case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
A bench of Justice Vikas Mahajan granted custody parole to Engineer Rashid for February 11 and 13 while imposing a slew of conditions. As per the Delhi HC order, Engineer Rashid will not interact with any person except for his limited responsibility of attending the House and will not address the media in any manner.
On February 7, Justice Mahajan-led Bench reserved its verdict on Engineer Rashid’s plea seeking interim bail, or alternatively, custody parole, to attend the ongoing Parliament session, after hearing the oral arguments advanced by the counsel representing the federal anti-terror agency and Engineer Rashid’s lawyer.
During the hearing, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing on behalf of the NIA, argued that there are security issues and custody parole is not a vested right of a legislator.
Engineer Rashid has petitioned the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the trial court judge to expedite a decision on his pending regular bail application or decide the matter itself.
Earlier, a court here, instead of passing an order on the application for regular bail, had recommended the District Judge to transfer his case to the MP/MLA court as Rashid became an MP.
In his plea pending before the Delhi HC, he sought interim bail to attend the ongoing Budget session of the Parliament, which began on January 31 and will conclude on April 4.
In the alternative, Engineer Rashid prayed that he be given custody parole, if not interim bail, to attend the Parliament session. The NIA has opposed the interim bail plea of Engineer Rashid.
The Delhi High Court had called for a reply from its registry over the designation of an appropriate court to hear Rashid’s bail plea.
After the NIA’s counsel submitted that the anti-terror agency in November last year had made a representation to the registry on the issue of designation of the NIA court as a court which could hear cases against lawmakers, the Justice Mahajan-led Bench issued a notice to the Registrar General to ascertain the status and posted the matter for hearing on February 6.
During the hearing held last week, the counsel representing the Registrar General stated that an application has been moved before the Supreme Court seeking clarification on the issue of designation of a court, adding that the issue will be mentioned before the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for urgent listing.
Engineer Rashid was arrested by the NIA in 2019 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The ED had also filed a money laundering case against him and the accused persons based on the NIA's FIR, which accused them of conspiring to wage war against the government and fomenting trouble in the Valley.
Engineer Rashid has represented the Langate Assembly constituency in J&K twice. His brother, Sheikh Khurshid Ahmad won the 2024 Assembly election from Langate.