New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea filed by Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid seeking interim bail, or alternatively, custody parole, 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 and now Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah by over two lakh votes while he remained lodged in Tihar Jail, is accused in a terror funding case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
A bench of Justice Vikas Mahajan reserved its decision after hearing the oral arguments advanced by the counsel representing the federal anti-terror agency and Engineer Rashid’s lawyer.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing on NIA’s behalf, argued that there are security issues and custody parole is not a vested right of a legislator.
"He (Rashid) is an elected Member of Parliament. What is the difficulty in sending him in custody? Come back with instructions tomorrow," remarked Justice Mahajan-led Bench on Thursday, as it sought NIA’s stand in the matter.
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 moved an application seeking 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 on Tuesday 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.
In the course of the hearing on Thursday, 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) on Friday 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 on the basis of 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.