‘With folded hands’: Er Rashid seeks interim bail to attend Parliament

New Delhi, Nov 25: Jammu and Kashmir MP Engineer Rashid on Monday moved a Delhi court seeking interim bail in a terror-funding case to attend the ongoing Parliament session.

After Rashid urged Principal District and Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav to grant him the reprieve, the court asked the National Investigation Agency to file a response by November 27.

Engineer Rashid, appearing virtually in court from Tihar Jail, said, "I have been elected by my people. I was not allowed to attend the last session. With folded hands I request you that I may be granted interim bail." During the proceedings, the counsel for Rashid and the NIA jointly sought the matter to remain in the court hearing it. The judge was hearing the matter recommended by a special court, which urged the district judge to transfer the terror-funding case to a court designated to try lawmakers after observing Rashid was now a member of Parliament. The special court also sent to the district judge an application filed by Rashid seeking regular bail in the case.

Apart from the case lodged by the NIA and the regular bail application of Rashid, the special judge also recommended transferring a related money laundering case to the special court.

The district court would resume hearing the matters on November 27.

Rashid was elected from the Baramulla constituency in the 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.

Both the cases filed by 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.

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.