Delhi HC asks NIA reply on MP Engineer Rashid's plea for custody parole
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the NIA to respond to the plea of jailed Jammu and Kashmir MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid seeking to attend Parliament. A bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Rajneesh Kumar Gupta issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Rashid's appeal against a trial court order refusing him custody parole or interim bail.
Rashid is facing charges under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). "Issue notice. Let objections, if any, be placed before this court on Monday," the bench said while posting the hearing on March 18. When the NIA counsel sought a couple of days to place the agency's response, the court turned down the request. "If the session gets over, there is no point," the court said. Senior advocate N Hariharan, appearing for Rashid, said the Parliament session was till April 4 and his constituency was going unrepresented. "All we are asking is the permission to attend Parliament.. I represent the parliamentary constituency which has 45 per cent of the entire population of J&K. Send me in custody (parole)," he said.
Hariharan referred to Rashi'd two-day custody parole granted by the high court previously. Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to the place of visit. The NIA counsel said Rashid was permitted to attend the Parliament session for two days under "different circumstances" in the absence of a designated court to decide his plea. He said a court had been designated now and his bail plea was likely to be decided by the trial court on March 19.
The court then asked the counsel to make the submission in the appeal on the next date of hearing. The Baramulla MP, who defeated Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is facing trial in a terror funding case with the allegations that he funded separatists and terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir and is presently lodged in Tihar. While dealing with his plea alleging absence of a forum to decide his bail plea, the high court on February 10 allowed him a two-day custody parole to attend Parliament session on February 11 and 13. The NIA had then argued that Rashid had no vested right to attend Parliament.
Rashid has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him under UAPA in the 2017 terror-funding case. According to the NIA's FIR, Rashid's name cropped up during the interrogation of businessman and co-accused Zahoor Watali. The NIA said Rashid sought to legitimise Pakistan-based United Jehad Council which functioned as a common platform for terror groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. The accused is a part of a "well-calibrated" strategy devised by Pakistan to instigate youths and create an environment of unrest, it added. After being chargesheeted in October 2019, a special NIA court framed charges against him in March, 2022. Charges were framed in the case against Rashid and others in 2022 under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against the government),124A (sedition) of IPC and for offences relating to terrorist acts and terror finding of UAPA.
