A Delhi court on Tuesday granted MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh an interim bail in a terror-funding case.

Sheikh, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, was granted bail till October 2 to allow him to campaign for the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir will head for polling in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 8, alongside that of Haryana. The Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be the first in 10 years.

Sheikh has been in jail since August 2019 in connection with a terror-funding case filed by the National Investigation Agency. He is being held under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. He is currently in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

The bail was granted by Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh of the Patiala House Court, Sheikh’s lawyer Vikhyat Oberoi told Scroll.

The 57-year-old is the Lok Sabha MP from Kashmir’s Baramulla seat.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Sheikh defeated National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by more than two lakh votes from the constituency. While Sheikh leads the Jammu and Kashmir Awami Ittehad Party, he had contested the general election as an independent candidate.

He was the MLA from Langate constituency between 2008 and 2018.

In July, Delhi’s Patiala House Court had granted him custody parole for two hours on July 5 to take oath in Parliament. At that time, the investigative agency had informed the court that its consent for Sheikh’s custodial parole was subject to the condition that he will not speak to the media.

Inam Un Nabi, the spokesperson of Sheikh’s party, told ANI that an interim bail plea had been filed with reference to the Supreme Court’s judgement in a matter pertaining to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

On May 10, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party, until June 1 to allow him to campaign in the Lok Sabha polls. Kejriwal is in jail in connection with the liquor policy case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.

On Monday, Mehbooba Mufti, the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party leader and a former chief minister, alleged that Sheikh’s party was acting as the “proxy” of the Bharatiya Janata Party, NDTV reported.

Mehbooba Mufti asked how Sheikh’s party had the resources to field candidates across the Union territory.

“[PDP founder] Mufti [Mohammad Sayeed] took 50 years to form the party, we still do not have resources to field candidates everywhere,” NDTV quoted Mehbooba Mufti as saying. “Who is behind his [Sheikh’s] organisation so their candidates are fielded everywhere? From where is the funding coming?”

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