Delhi court grants interim bail to Engineer Rashid until 2 October

A Delhi court on Tuesday, 10 September granted interim bail till 2 October 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.

On 5 July, 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, 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.