On 28th January (Wednesday), the Delhi High Court dismissed a plea made by Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, contesting the framing of charges against him in a terror funding case. The appeal was deemed unmaintainable by a bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Madhu Jain.
“In the present appeal, the challenge was to the charge order dated 16-3-2022 and the formal charge dated 10-5-2022 framed in NIA RC No. 10 of 2017. The further prayer for discharging the appellant from the said charges, which have been framed. The senior counsel for the NIA has placed before the court a decision of the coordinate bench in a bunch of appeals, Criminal Appeal 199 of 2021 Shahid Yusuf v.s NIA wherein it has been observed as under..” the court declared.
In the case of Shahid Yusuf, a coordinate bench determined that the verdict establishing allegations against the accused is interlocutory in character and cannot be disputed in an appeal under Section 21 of the National Investigation Agency Act. It had been stated that Section 21(1)’s use of the word “order” relates to a final order rather than an interlocutory or intermediate direction.
“In view of the…an order framing a charge would be an interlocutory order…and hence an appeal would not be maintainable. In view thereof, the present appeal would also not be maintainable and is accordingly dismissed, as being not maintainable,” the court concluded and also noted that it will not address the NIA’s submission that the petition was filed more than 1,100 days late since the same is not maintainable.
He challenged a trial court order dated 16th March 2022 which framed charges under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the Government of India), 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable by section 121), and 13 (punishment for unlawful activities), 15 (terrorist act), 17 (punishment for raising funds for terrorist act) and 18 (punishment for conspiracy, etc.) UAPA.
In a case involving offences under Sections 120B/121/121A of the IPC and multiple UAPA clauses, Rashid has filed a second appeal challenging the trial court’s decision dated 21st March of last year denying him bail, and the matter will be heard on 19th February.
The Baramulla Lok Sabha MP has been locked in the Tihar jail since 2019 after his arrest by the NIA under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the 2017 terror funding case. His name surfaced during questioning of the co-accused, Zahoor Watali, according to the NIA’s FIR. Rashid was granted custodial parole by a Delhi court and permitted to attend the Budget Session of Parliament, which commenced on Wednesday, while being escorted to his destination by armed police officers.
