The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday said jailed Jammu and Kashmir MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid’s couldn’t be allowed to use his status to “get away from the rigours of imprisonment”.

 The NIA’s response in the Delhi High Court came on Rashid’s plea against a March 10 trial court order refusing him custody parole or interim bail to attend Lok Sabha proceedings till April 4.

 The Baramulla MP, the probe agency said, faced serious charges under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The NIA argued Rashid could neither be granted an interim bail nor allowed custody parole for he had no enforceable right to attend Parliament session while in lawful custody.  Accusing him of “forum shopping” and abusing the process of the law, the agency said there was no valid ground to grant him relief in view of his “vague averments” relating to his intention to “serve the constituency”.

 “The fact that merely the appellant is a Parliamentarian does not entitle him to claim any exception from the fact of being in judicial custody. The law is well settled that the legislators/parliamentarians have no statutory right to participate in the session of the house so long as they are under lawful detention,” it said.

 The NIA said at the time of filing nominations for Lok Sabha elections, charges were framed against Rashid in the case by a special court and the trial was underway. The accused, the NIA said, was aware of being in judicial custody for serious offences punishable under the UAPA and his election as an MP of Lok Sabha, as a result, made no difference.

 It cannot be used as a tool for getting interim bail under the garb of providing services to the people of his constituency, it added.  Calling Rashid a “highly influential” person who might influence witnesses in J&K, the agency said, “(Under) Section 43D(5) UAPA, the accused cannot be granted bail if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations against the accused are prima facie true.”  The appeal also does not satisfy the twin tests prescribed under Section 43D(5) of UAPA, and accordingly, the appeal under reply deserves to be dismissed, it argued.

 Summons issued by the President of India inviting the appellant to attend the Parliamentary session were stated to be a “routine matter” that were sent to all the parliamentarians and not exclusively to Rashid. The order on Rashid’s regular bail plea was on March 19, the NIA said, and his previous pleas for interim bail to participate in LoK Sabha proceedings were rejected. On March 12, the high court sought NIA’s stand on Rashid’s appeal.

 Rashid’s counsel urged the high court to permit him to attend the ongoing session on custody parole, akin to a previous two-day reprieve. Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to the place of visit. 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. 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.

After being chargesheeted in October 2019, a special NIA court framed charges against him in March, 2022.