When a Prisoner Became Honorable, Is Engineer Rashid’s Victory a Victory or a Question?:

News India Live, Digital Desk: Engineer Rashid, who won the Baramulla seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, is once again in the news. Rashid, lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a serious case of terror funding, has got a big relief from the court. Delhi’s Patiala House Court has granted him custodial parole to attend the budget session of Parliament starting from January 28.

How to go to Parliament?

The court has given this parole with some conditions. Engineer Rashid will go directly from Tihar Jail to Parliament House every day under police protection and will be taken back to jail as soon as the session is over. This parole has been given from 28 January to 2 April 2026, i.e. for the entire budget session. This means that as an MP, he will be able to raise the voice of his area in the House.

Why is Rashid in jail?

Engineer Rashid was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019. He is accused of being involved in a terror funding case of 2017. NIA says that a case has been registered against Rashid under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, i.e. UAPA. It is alleged that he was part of the conspiracy of terror funding from Pakistan.

Became MP while in jail

This case is also unique because Engineer Rashid contested and won the Lok Sabha elections while in jail. He had filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Baramulla seat. His son Abrar Rashid took charge of the campaign for him and asked the public to vote for his father. When the election results came, everyone was surprised. Rashid defeated veteran leader like former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by a huge margin of more than 2 lakh votes.

This is not the first time that Rashid has got parole. Even before this, he has been given custodial parole to take oath as MP, attend the monsoon session and vote in the Vice President election. After this decision, the debate has once again erupted as to whether a public representative who is in jail on serious charges should be allowed to participate in the proceedings of the House or not.