Judge recommends sending terror case against Engineer Rashid to MP/MLA court

A Delhi court on Thursday urged the District Judge to transfer the Jammu and Kashmir terror-funding case to a court designated to try lawmakers after observing one of the accused, Engineer Rashid, was now a member of Parliament.

Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh, who was also scheduled to pass an order on Rashid’s application seeking regular bail, sent the case file to the District Judge, who would likely hear the matter on November 25.

Apart from the case lodged by the NIA and the bail application of Rashid, the judge also recommended transferring a related money laundering case to the special court.

Rashid was elected from the Baramulla constituency in the Lok Sabha election and has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the 2017 terror-funding case.

Both the cases filed by the NIA and the ED also involve Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin and others.

Based on the NIA FIR, the ED filed a money laundering case against the accused persons.

The NIA lodged the FIR against the accused persons for “conspiring to wage war against the government” and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir Valley.