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Delhi's Patiala House Court on Wednesday deferred the order on the regular bail plea of Baramulla MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid.
He is an accused in a terror case lodged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Special Judge (NIA) deferred the order and listed it on March 21 for orders. His bail plea has been pending since September last year. The Delhi High Court had directed the special NIA court to expedite the matter. The Delhi High Court on February 24 directed the Trial Court to expedite its decision on Engineer Rashid's bail plea. On March 10, his plea seeking interim bail/ custody parole to attend the parliament was rejected. Previously, the trial court had declined to rule on his bail plea, stating that it lacked jurisdiction. It is to be noted that it is an NIA Designated Court and Engineer Rashid has become an MP, which involves specific designation powers for MPs and MLAs court. Justice Vikas Mahajan issued the direction after being informed by the high court's registrar that the Supreme Court clarified that the NIA court could hear Rashid's bail plea. The registrar's lawyer had also informed the court that following this clarification, the Delhi High Court passed an administrative order directing that the trial be conducted by the NIA-designated court at Patiala House Court. After the development, Senior Advocate N Hariharan withdrew the bail plea from Delhi High Court. He pointed out that his regular bail is pending since September 2024. Rashid had approached the high court earlier, claiming he had no option for relief after the NIA court left his bail application unresolved due to its inability to handle cases involving MPs and MLAs, following his election to the Lok Sabha last year. The same bench had allowed custody parole to Engineer Rashid, the MP from Baramulla, to attend the ongoing Parliament session for two days. (Feb 11 and Feb 13). He is lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi, in connection with a terror funding case. Engineer had moved the High Court after Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Chander Jit Singh, the special judge assigned to NIA cases, declined to rule on his bail application on December 23. The judge had stated that the court only had the authority to hear miscellaneous applications, not bail petitions. Rashid was arrested in August 2019 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). During his incarceration, he filed his nomination for the 2024 parliamentary elections from jail and won by a margin of 2,04,000 votes, defeating former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. (ANI)
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