Delhi court to hear terror-funding case against Engineer Rashid on December 19

New Delhi : A Delhi court is likely to decide on December 19 whether to transfer the terror-funding case against Jammu and Kashmir MP Engineer Rashid to a special court designated to try lawmakers.

The hearing in the case, which was scheduled to be taken up on Thursday, was adjourned because the judge hearing the matter was on leave.

The NIA had on November 27 informed Principal District and Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav that it was likely to move the Delhi High Court seeking grant of special powers to a court currently hearing the terror-funding case against Rashid, to enable it to hear the case.

The District Court was hearing the matter recommended by a special judge over the transfer of the terror-funding case to a court designated to try lawmakers after observing that Rashid was now a member of Parliament.

Previously, the counsel for Rashid and the NIA jointly sought the matter to remain in the court hearing it.

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

Rashid was elected from the Baramulla constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections 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.

The ED filed a money laundering case against the accused persons on the basis of the NIA’s FIR, which accused them of “conspiring to wage war against the government” and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir Valley. — (PTI)