Terror case: J&K MP Rashid Engineer seeks interim bail for budget session

Jammu and Kashmir MP Rashid Engineer on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking interim bail in a terror-funding case.

Rashid sought the reprieve on the ground that he wished to attend the upcoming budget session of the Parliament, which begins on January 31 and concludes on April 4.

As an alternative, he prayed that he be given custody parole during this period.

The plea forms part of his pending petition on the issue of granting him bail in the case by the NIA.

In the main petition, he has urged the high court to either direct the expeditious disposal of his pending bail application by a lower court here or decide the matter itself.

On January 23, the high court had sought the stand of the NIA in the case and listed it for hearing on January 30.

Rahid's plea for the interim bail is also expected to be heard by the high court on January 30.

On December 24 last year, additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh -- who had requested the district judge to transfer the case to a court designated to try lawmakers as Rashid became an MP -- dismissed Rashid's plea urging him to pronounce the verdict on his pending bail application in the NIA case.

With the matter sent back to him by the district judge, the trial judge said in his decision that he could only decide the miscellaneous application and not the regular bail plea.

Before the high court, Rashid's senior counsel said the MP was left without any redressal as the court hearing the bail plea "suddenly" took the view that it could not hear his case and the MP/MLA court did not have the jurisdiction to hear NIA cases.

He argued the pendency of the bail plea was resulting in Rashid's constituency being left unrepresented during the parliamentary sessions owing to his continuing custody.

The NIA counsel had said the agency in November wrote to the registrar general of the high court on the issue of designation of a lower court to hear the case but he was not aware of the status of the request.

Rashid was elected from the Baramulla constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the 2017 terror-funding case. The ED filed a money laundering case against the accused persons on the basis of the NIA's FIR, which accused them of "conspiring to wage war against the government" and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir valley.

Cases of the NIA and the ED also involve Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin and others.