Engineer Rashid, who won the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat in Jammu Kashmir in 2019, will remain in Delhi’s Tihar Jail as an NIA court has denied his interim bail request in a terror funding case, his lawyers announced on Tuesday.
Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, ran as an Independent candidate and defeated National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in Baramulla.
Rashid was arrested in 2019 in connection with a Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case. He sought interim bail to take his oath as an MP but has been imprisoned since 2019.
The National Investigation Agency charged him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA), and he remains in Tihar Jail.
Rashid’s involvement came to light during the investigation of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, arrested by the NIA for allegedly financing terrorist groups and separatists in the region.
The NIA’s charge sheet implicated several individuals, including Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin.
Malik received a life sentence from a trial court in 2022 after admitting guilt.