Engineer Rashid moves HC to modify interim bail order
Baramulla MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid on Monday urged the Delhi High Court to modify its earlier order granting him one-week interim bail in a terror funding case and allow him to be with his ailing father, who has been shifted to AIIMS Delhi from Srinagar.
A bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Madhu Jain, which had confined the Baramulla MP to Srinagar for the duration of his interim bail, listed the matter for hearing on Tuesday and asked him to furnish a local address.
The senior counsel for Rashid submitted that he has a flat in Delhi, which has been allotted to him as a member of Parliament. The court, however, observed that it would not permit Rashid to stay in a place that also houses other MPs.
“That is not good enough. You can’t be in the MP house where other MPs are living. I can’t permit that. It will be a security issue,” the bench said.
The senior counsel said he would furnish the address of a private residence to the court.
The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) counsel submitted that since the court has effectively granted custody parole in the matter and Rashid was no longer required to be outside Delhi, he should be permitted to visit his father from the jail itself, especially when the interim bail was expiring on May 6.
Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to his place of visit.
The NIA lawyer further stated that the condition of the petitioner’s father was stable and he was shifted to AIIMS Delhi on the family’s request.
Rashid’s counsel said that pursuant to the interim bail, he was released on April 30 and reached Srinagar the same day.
He said Rashid’s father was airlifted to AIIMS Delhi after his health took a serious turn, but he was unable to relocate himself on account of the court order confining him to Srinagar.
“I am stuck in Srinagar. I am not allowed to come. He is here. I am there,” the senior lawyer said.
The court granted the interim bail to Rashid on April 28 on the condition that he could either visit the hospital where his father was being treated or remain at home.
It also ordered that at least two police officials would accompany him in plainclothes at all times.
The court passed the order while dealing with Rashid’s appeal against an April 24 trial court verdict refusing to grant him interim bail.
Rashid was arrested for allegedly funding separatists and terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir. He has been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him in the 2017 terror-funding case.
After being named in a chargesheet in October 2019, a special NIA court framed charges against Rashid and others in March 2022 under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against the Government) and 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code and for offences relating to terrorist acts and terror funding under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
