New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has permitted jailed Baramulla MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, better known as Engineer Rashid, to attend the ongoing Budget session of Parliament ‘in custody’.
Rashid, currently serving prison time in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a terror funding case, can attend Parliament proceedings from March 26 to April 4.
The order passed on Tuesday directed the Director General (Prisons) to send the Jammu & Kashmir lawmaker “in custody” under police escort to the Parliament during the specified period.
Once he is brought to Parliament, Rashid will be handed over to the custody of Parliament security/marshals, who will allow him to attend proceedings of the Lower House and also avail other facilities and amenities he is entitled to during the hours that Lok Sabha is in session.
Once the session gets over, Rashid will be handed back to the prison escort, who will take him back to Tihar jail straight from the Parliament, on the same day, without any delay, the court spelt out.
The court laid out some restrictions on Rashid, reported India Today. They are as follows:
* He won’t be entitled to use any cellular or landline phone or other communication device. Neither will he be allowed to have internet access in any mode.
* He won’t interact with any other person at any time, while he is outside the premises of jail, except within the premises of the Lok Sabha and in relation to the performance of his role as an MP as per the requisite discipline permitted by Lok Sabha rules.
* He will not be permitted to address the media (electronic and print), neither within the premises of Parliament nor outside, in any manner whatsoever, including about the pendency of the criminal proceedings against him.
* Rashid will have to bear the expenses for to-and-fro travel and other arrangements.
Rashid, who defeated National Conference leader and current Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is undergoing trial in a terror funding case over allegations that he funded separatists and terror groups in Jammu & Kashmir.
Chargesheeted 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.
