MP Rashid Engineer Granted Interim Bail Ahead Of Jammu And Kashmir Assembly Elections

New Delhi: In the wake of the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, a special NIA court in Delhi on Tuesday granted interim bail to Lok Sabha MP Rashid Engineer in connection with a terror funding case. The court granted interim bail to Engineer till October 2, 2024. Ahead of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the NIA court has granted him bail to campaign for the assembly elections. The bail has been granted till October 2, following which he will have to surrender in front of the NIA.

Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh granted the relief to Rashid, who had moved the court seeking interim bail to campaign in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. "I am granting interim bail till October 2. He will have to surrender on October 3," the judge said.

The judge granted Rashid the relief on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and one surety of the like amount and also imposed various conditions on him, including that he shall not influence the witnesses or the probe.

Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, defeated former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Baramulla. On July 5, the court granted Rashid custody parole to take the oath as a member of the Lok Sabha.

Rashid has been in jail since 2019 after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the 2017 terror funding case. He is lodged in Tihar jail.

The court has reserved for tomorrow its order on his regular bail application.

Rashid's name cropped up in the case 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 had filed a charge sheet against several people, 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.