Delhi court grants interim bail to Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted interim bail till October 2 to Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid in a terror funding case. Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, defeated former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Baramulla. 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 & 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. The judge also imposed various conditions on him, including that he shall not influence the witnesses or the probe. On July 5, the court had 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 in the terror funding case.