Delhi Court seeks NIA response on Rashid’s interim bail plea
A Delhi court on Monday asked the NIA to respond to a plea of jailed Jammu and Kashmir MP Engineer Rashid, who had approached it seeking interim bail to attend the upcoming Parliament session.
Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file its reply on Rashid’s plea by March 5.
The applicant sought the relief on the grounds that Rashid was a parliamentarian and needed to attend the Parliament session to fulfil his public duty. The second part of Parliament’s Budget session would begin on March 10 and end on April 4.
In February, the Delhi High Court had granted him two-day custody parole to attend the Budget session on February 11 and 13. Rashid was restricted from using mobile phone or accessing internet during the parole. He had moved the high court after the NIA court declined to hear the matter, saying it fell under the jurisdiction of the MP and MLA court as Rashid had become an MP.
An application was filed with the Supreme Court, which clarified that the NIA court would continue hearing the bail petition.
Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, was arrested by the NIA under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a 2017 terror funding case and has been lodged in Tihar jail since 2019. He had defeated Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Baramulla. Rashid’s regular bail application is currently pending before the court.
The judge on September 10 last year granted interim bail to Rashid to enable him to campaign for the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Rashid surrendered himself before Tihar Jail on October 27.
