The Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed jailed Baramulla MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid to meet his ailing father at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, for a fixed duration each day till May 10.
The Division Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Madhu Jain modified its earlier order that had granted interim bail for one week to enable the appellant to visit his father in Srinagar. In view of the subsequent medical transfer of his father to AIIMS Delhi, the Court altered the relief and permitted Rashid to meet him daily from 8 am to 8 pm at the hospital. It clarified that this arrangement did not amount to release from custody, and the appellant shall return to judicial custody after each visit.
The Bench directed that all earlier conditions imposed while granting interim bail would continue to operate. It specifically mandated that Rashid shall remain under constant supervision of at least two police personnel in plain clothes, who would accompany him and remain stationed outside the hospital ward during the visit.
The modification was sought after the appellant informed the Court that his father had been shifted from Srinagar to AIIMS Delhi for medical treatment. Although the defence proposed a local residential address in Delhi for the duration of the interim bail, the Court declined to permit such an arrangement, noting that the address did not belong to any relative or known associate and could not be verified at this stage.
Rashid has been in judicial custody since 2019 following his arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terror funding case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. His regular bail application was rejected by the trial court in March 2025. A subsequent plea seeking interim bail on humanitarian grounds, citing his father’s deteriorating health, was also rejected by the trial court in April 2026, inter alia, on allegations that the accused had attempted to influence witnesses, including a protected witness.
The present order was passed in an appeal challenging the rejection of interim bail. The High Court limited the relief to facilitating daily supervised access to the appellant’s father at the hospital, while maintaining continuity of custody and compliance with existing bail conditions.
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