NEW DELHI, Feb 24: The Delhi High Court today asked the court hearing cases of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to expeditiously decide the bail plea of jailed J&K MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid in a terror funding case.
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Justice Vikas Mahajan said, “The ASJ-03, Patiala House Court, New Delhi, is requested to dispose of the bail application of the petitioner expeditiously.”
The court was dealing with Rashid’s plea alleging there was no remedy available after the NIA court, handling his bail application, left him in limbo post his election as a member of Parliament (MP).
Justice Mahajan observed that a direction had been passed by the high court on the administrative side clarifying that the NIA court would continue to hear the case.
In light of the development, Rashid’s counsel, senior advocate N Hariharan, sought to withdraw the plea from the high court but requested a direction to the NIA court to decide the bail application which had pending since August of last year.
“An order was reserved (on the bail plea) but was not passed due to lack of jurisdiction. Now the power has been granted,” he said.
The NIA counsel stated that the trial court had set six dates for placing the prosecution evidence on record.
The counsel representing the high court administration stated that in view of the Supreme Court’s order passed on February 10 which clarified that the NIA court could also deal with a case involving a lawmaker — an appropriate direction was issued on February 17.
In his petition, Rashid urged the high court to either direct the expeditious disposal of his pending bail plea by the NIA court or decide the matter itself.
As an interim relief in the matter, Rashid was granted a two-day custody parole on February 10 to attend the Parliament session on February 11 and 13. (PTI)
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