SRINAGAR — The Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) on Saturday appealed to Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant to consider the bail plea of Baramulla Lok Sabha MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid with compassion, urgency and constitutional fairness, claiming that he has been wrongly implicated in a terror-funding case.
Addressing a press conference on Rashid’s imprisonment of seven years, AIP chief spokesperson Inam Un Nabi said the incarceration of an elected MP “without the trial reaching its logical conclusion was not merely a legal matter but a serious test of justice, constitutional values and human conscience”.
“Er Rashid is not merely an accused. He is a democratically elected Member of Parliament from Baramulla, representing nearly 40 per cent of Kashmir’s population. For seven long years, the democratic voice of his constituents has remained away from the people who elected him,” he said.
“The judiciary has repeatedly emphasised the importance of personal liberty and the principle that ‘bail is the rule and jail is the exception’. We are not questioning the judicial process. We have complete faith in the judiciary. Our only request is that justice must not be delayed, particularly when personal liberty is at stake,” he said.
Nabi said the consequences of prolonged incarceration were not confined to Rashid alone, but the “suffering is shared by lakhs of voters who placed their trust in their elected representative and whose voice has remained absent for seven years”.
Referring to Article 21 of the Constitution, the AIP chief spokesperson said the right to life and personal liberty was a fundamental constitutional guarantee and that prolonged incarceration and delay in trial deserved the highest judicial consideration.
“We are not seeking any special privilege for Er Rashid. We seek equal justice, equal treatment and the protection of constitutional guarantees available to every citizen. Our appeal is not political. It is constitutional and humanitarian,” he added.
Nabi also highlighted what he described as a “significant development” in the proceedings concerning Er Rashid before the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi.
Citing the court proceedings of July 6 this year, Nabi claimed that JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik submitted an affidavit supporting Rashid’s long-standing claim that he was wrongly identified and implicated in connection with a specific identity aspect of a joint terror-funding case.
“The court proceedings record Malik as stating that there was another person named Sheikh Abdul Rashid associated with the JKLF and that the investigating agency had wrongly implicated Engineer Rashid in his place,” Nabi said. Malik also submitted an affidavit in this regard, which the court accepted on record and stated would be considered while passing orders on charge,” he added.
He said this development assumes considerable significance because the attribution of ‘Sheikh Abdul Rashid’ to Engineer Rashid had been one of the allegations repeatedly relied upon against him.
The AIP chief spokesperson said the court record now contains a specific statement from the principal accused disputing that identification.
“For years, Er Rashid has maintained that the Sheikh Abdul Rashid referred to in the alleged communication was not him but another individual bearing the same name. Today, that very contention has been placed before the Court by Yasin Malik himself and has been supported through an affidavit taken on record,” Nabi said.
He, however, said the final determination rests with the court.
“We are not pre-judging the matter. But if this position is ultimately accepted by the court, it would seriously undermine one of the foundational allegations that has been repeatedly levelled against Er Rashid,” he said. — (PTI)