Delhi HC permits Engineer Rashid to visit ailing father at AIIMS

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has modified its earlier order granting interim bail to Baramulla MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, and permitted him to visit his ailing father, admitted to AIIMS in the national capital.

In its latest order, a Bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Madhu Jain permitted Rashid to go to AIIMS daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. till May 10.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had granted interim bail to Rashid to enable him to visit his father, who was then admitted to a hospital in Srinagar. However, following a deterioration in his father’s condition, the family shifted him to AIIMS, prompting Rashid to seek modification of the interim bail order to allow him to travel to Delhi.

The plea seeking modification of the bail conditions was moved on the ground that the earlier relief had become infructuous due to the change in the location of his father’s treatment.

On Monday, the Justice Singh-led Bench issued notice to the NIA (National Investigation Agency) in the matter and asked Rashid to provide details of an alternative address in Delhi, apart from his official residence. During the hearing, the NIA opposed his request to stay at his MP residence in Delhi.

In an order passed on April 28, the Delhi High Court had granted one week’s interim bail to Rashid in a terror-funding case being probed by the NIA, allowing him to visit and care for his ailing father in Srinagar under strict conditions.