Court sends former J&K MLA to judicial custody for two weeks

NEWDELHI:A Delhi court Wednesday sent former independent Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Abdul Rashid to judicial custody in a case related to funding of terror activities in the Valley.

Popularly known as Rashid Engineer, he was a legislator from the Langate Assembly seat in north Kashmir and is the first mainstream politician to have been arrested by the NIA in the case.

District Judge Yashwant Kumar sent Rashid to the custody for two weeks after the NIA produced him before the court on expiry of his custodial interrogation.

The National Investigation Agency told the court that further interrogation of the accused was not required.

It had earlier told the court that Rashid received money from Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and assisted Hurriyat leaders in running the terror funding module.

He was earlier questioned in the case in 2017 and again summoned last week, the agency said.

Advocate Ankit Sarna, appearing for Rashid, had opposed the NIA plea saying he was already cooperating in the investigation and that there was no need of further custodial interrogation.

Rashid was arrested on August 9, since he was unable to give any convincing answers to the questions, the NIA said.

His name had cropped up during the interrogation of businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the NIA for allegedly supplying money to terror groups and separatists in the Valley.