Baramulla Lok Sabha MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, also known as Engineer Rashid, Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking waiver of the condition that requires him to pay the expense of the travel arrangements to and from the jail after the court allowed him to attend Parliament.
The high court order issued Tuesday and made public Wednesday stipulated that Rashid, who has been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2019 in a case of alleged terror funding, must cover the costs for his travel to Parliament while he is in the court’s custody. This includes the cost of police security cover and other necessary arrangements.
In an application moved through his advocate Vikhyat Oberoi, Rashid told the court now that he received an email from the jail authorities at 8.21 pm Wednesday and that it said he is required to pay Rs 1,45,736 daily for travel and travel-related arrangements, costing him a total of Rs 8,74,716 for attending Parliament for six days.
Given his custodial status, Rashid, who defeated Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Baramulla seat by over 2 lakh votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, submitted that he is unable to arrange for such a substantial amount, saying that the cost “is excessively high” and that he is “not in a financial position to bear the same”.
Rashid also noted that during previous instances when he was granted interim bail or a two-day custody parole in February to attend the Budget session, he was not required to cover the costs of travel and related arrangements.
Rashid, who is expected to attend Parliament Thursday, submitted in his application that “with great difficulty” he collected and paid one day’s expenses after “two-three persons from the constituency have collected funds and made payments from their personal accounts to the jail authorities”.
A division bench of Justices Chandra Dhari Singh and Anup Bhambhani, in its order permitting Rashid to attend Parliament, reasoned that notwithstanding the serious charges Rashid is faced with, “As a Member of Parliament, the appellant (Rashid) owes to the people of his constituency the duty and responsibility to represent them in Parliament”.
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Rashid was arrested in 2019 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), he used various public platforms to “propagate the ideology of separatism and secessionism”, was closely associated with various terrorist organisations, and wanted to “legitimise” the United Jihad Council, a platform of anti-India militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir.
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