New Delhi: The Patiala House on Thursday recommended transferring a case about Jammu and Kashmir terror funding to a designated MP-MLA court after observing that one of the accused, Engineer Rashid, was now a member of Parliament.
Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh, who was hearing Rashid’s regular bail plea, transferred the case file to the District Judge, asking him to decide on the matter and transferring the case to the court designated to try the lawmaker. The district judge will likely hear them on November 25.
Earlier, the court had postponed its decision several times, including on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rashid won the Lok Sabha election 2024 by defeating former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by about one lakh votes on the Baramulla seat.
He was arrested by the NIA in 2016. On March 16, 2022, the Patiala House Court ordered the framing of charges against him besides Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salahuddin, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masrat Alam, Zahoor Ahmed Watali, Bitta Karate, Aftab Ahmed Shah, Avtar Ahmed Shah, Naeem Khan, Bashir Ahmed Butt alias Peer Saifullah, and others.
According to the NIA, organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, JKLF, and Jaish-e-Mohammed, with the support of Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI, carried out attacks and violence on civilians and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. In 1993, the All Party Hurriyat Conference was established to carry out separatist activities, the NIA said.
The agency claimed that Hafiz Saeed, along with the leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, transacted funds through hawala and other channels to carry out terrorist activities. They used this money to spread unrest in the valley, attack security forces, burn schools, and damage public property, the probe agency added.
