New Delhi — Jailed Jammu and Kashmir MP Engineer Rashid on Wednesday sought custody parole to attend the upcoming Parliament session, claiming he was not a security threat.
Rashid’s counsel made the submission before additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh, who reserved the verdict for March 7 after hearing arguments on the plea.
The plea seeking Rashid’s interim bail or custody parole was filed by advocate Vikhyat Oberoi on February 27, following which the court sought the National Investigation Agency’s (NIAs) response on March 3.
The counsel previously argued that Rashid was seeking custody parole being a parliamentarian and needed to attend the upcoming session to fulfil his public duty.
Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to the place of visit.
Oberoi said the Delhi High Court had granted custody parole for two days enabling Rashid to attend the parliamentary sessions.
Referring to Rashid’s submission of questions on the functioning of J&K departments in Parliament, the lawyer said, “I have put in questions for all those departments. And I am therefore requesting debates on all those questions. I completely abide by the ruling of the high court (that its order of custody parole will not be treated as a precedent)…I am only trying to argue that in the face of the evidence, I am not a security threat.” He argued Rashid as a parliamentarian represented 45 per cent of Kashmir and so he could be allowed to represent his constituency.
“I am only requesting that he (Rashid) needs to go to Parliament for the people. It is not my condition. It is not my contention that it is the fundamental right of my client to attend Parliament. It is my summation that it is a fundamental duty to attend it,” the counsel said.
The NIA counsel opposed the submission and said being a parliamentarian, did not entitle a person exceptions from the effect of detention.
“Today, he is a person who is an MP (seeking custody parole on grounds of fulfilling his duty). Tomorrow, a doctor may be saying that I am accused of an offence, but I need to conduct surgery to save the lives of people and that my patients are waiting? Can he conduct surgery?… So any person may say that I have to perform my duty, I have to discharge my function…,” the NIAs counsel argued.
Sheikh Abdul Rashid, known as Engineer Rashid, defeated Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Baramulla.
Rashid’s regular bail application is currently pending before the court.
The second part of Parliament’s budget session would begin on March 10 and end on April 4.
The judge on September 10 granted interim bail to Rashid to enable him to campaign for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Rashid surrendered in Tihar Jail on October 27.
He has been lodged in Tihar jail since 2019 after he was arrested by the NIA under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a 2017 terror funding case.
The Delhi High Court on February 24 directed the sessions judge to expeditiously decide the bail plea of Rashid in the case.
The high court passed the directions in view of a December 24, 2024 order, by which the sessions court requested the district judge to transfer the case to a court designated to try lawmakers.
Rashid’s name cropped up during the investigation of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the NIA for allegedly funding terrorist groups and separatists in the Kashmir Valley.
The NIA filed a chargesheet against several persons, including Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, in the case.
Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 2022 after he pleaded guilty to the charges. — (PTI)
