Jammu: Incarcerated Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid on Wednesday moved an application for interim bail in the Delhi High Court.
Engineer Rashid won the Lok Sabha election from the Baramulla constituency by defeating National Conference (NC) Vice President and incumbent Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah by over two lakh votes while he remained lodged in Tihar Jail.
Engineer Rashid had sought the reprieve on the ground that he wishes to attend the upcoming Budget session of the Parliament that begins on January 31 and concludes on April 4.
He has alternatively pleaded that he be given custody parole if not interim bail to attend the Parliament session.
Engineer Rashid’s 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.
Delhi High Court had asked the NIA to present its stand in the case and listed it for hearing on January 30. Now both pleas for the interim bail and custody parole are expected to be heard by the high court on Thursday.
On December 24 last year, additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh had requested the district judge to transfer the case to a court designated to try lawmakers as Rashid became an MP.
The additional sessions judge 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.
He was arrested by NIA 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 Valley.
(IANS)
