New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted one-week interim bail to jailed Lok Sabha member from north Kashmir, Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid, to enable him to visit his ailing father.
A bench of justices Prathiba M Singh and Madhu Jain, however, clarified that during this period, Rashid, who is undergoing jail term in a terror funding case, could either visit the hospital where his father is being treated or remain at home.
The bench further ordered that at least two police officials would accompany him in plainclothes at all times and Rashid shall not bear the cost of their travel.
During the one-week period, there shall not be any “undue visitors” when Rashid is with his father except immediate family members, it added.
The court passed the order while dealing with Rashid’s appeal against a trial court’s April 24 decision refusing to grant him interim bail.
Senior advocate N Hariharan said the appellant’s father was critically ill and undergoing treatment at the government hospital in Srinagar.
Senior counsel Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the NIA, opposed Rashid’s appeal while suggesting that he be permitted to visit his father on custody parole instead of interim bail.
Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to his place of visit.
Turning down the request, the court said, “We don’t understand all the dimensions of custody parole. The intention is two people will be there with him all the time.”
“The appellant shall during the period of one week shall always be accompanied by two police officials in plain clothes. The said police officials shall accompany him from the beginning of the journey from jail till the seventh day when he returns. The jail superintendent is free to nominate people who will accompany him,” the court ordered.
Hariharan asserted that Rashid should not be burdened with the cost of police officials’ travel.
“I don’t have that kind of money,” he said, adding that he was asked to pay Rs 1 lakh daily to cover costs related to the custody parole granted for attending Parliament sessions. The issue is currently pending in the high court.
Luthra alleged that during an earlier period of interim bail, Rashid influenced a protected witness who has since turned hostile and that there was call data record to back the claim.
Adding that two more witnesses, including a protected witness, were yet to record their evidence in the trial court, Luthra claimed there was a reasonable apprehension that Rashid would attempt to influence them.
The court noted that Rashid had been in jail for more than six years and eight months, except 48 days of interim bail granted to file his nomination and campaign. The court said it was of the opinion that “this is a fit case for grant of interim bail for a period of one week from the date of release”.
It also noted that Rashid was earlier permitted to attend Parliament sessions, including the last Budget Session from January 28, on custody parole.
The court ordered Rashid to not try to contact any witness or influence them in any manner and to use only one mobile number, which must be shared with the investigating officer and kept switched on.
It also asked Rashid to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of the like amount.
The court listed Rashid’s plea seeking regular bail in the case for hearing in July.
The Baramulla MP, who defeated Omar Abdullah in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is facing trial in the terror funding case with allegations that he funded separatists and terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir.
He has been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him in the 2017 terror-funding case.
After being listed in a charge sheet in October 2019, a special NIA court framed charges against Rashid and others in March 2022 under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against the government), and 124A (sedition) of IPC and for offences relating to terrorist acts and terror funding under UAPA.
