The Delhi High Court allowed two-day custody parole to jailed J&K MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Rashid Engineer to attend the ongoing Parliament session. Justice Vikas Mahajan said Rashid could attend the Parliament session on February 11 and 13. Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to the place of visit.
Rashid was saddled with certain riders as conditions for the reprieve, including not using a cellphone or addressing media. The court said Rashid would be ferried to Lok Sabha and back, and the security inside Parliament would be decided in consultation with the Secretary General. The Baramulla MP is facing trial in a terror funding case with the allegations that he funded separatists and terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir. The court reserved its order on custody parole on February 7.
Rashid moved the High Court alleging he was left without a remedy after the NIA court dealing with his bail application left him in a limbo post his election to the Lok Sabha last year on account of it not being a special MP/MLA court. As an interim relief, he sought custody parole.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra and advocate Akshai Malik, representing the NIA, argued against the granting of custody parole, and said Rashid did not have a vested right to attend Parliament and hadn’t demonstrated a specific purpose for his request. On the contrary, senior advocate N Hariharan, along with advocate Vikhyat Oberoi, argued Rashid should be allowed to attend the session as his constituency was not being represented during the budget session when the funds allocated to his state had gone down by Rs 1,000 crore.
He referred to a previous case involving lawmaker Pappu Yadav who was allowed to participate in a Parliament session in 2009.
The counsel argued, “I represent the largest constituency of J&K. Don’t prevent representation when the process of inclusion has started... Don’t stifle the voice of the constituency.”
Rashid was arrested in 2019 following allegations of involvement in a money laundering case and for waging war against the country under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. His case is linked to funding separatist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and connections to designated terrorist Hafeez Saeed.