On completion of seven years of incarceration of Baramulla Member of Parliament (MP) Engineer Abdul Rashid, the Awami Itihad Party (AIP) on Saturday made an appeal to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, to consider the bail plea of its party chief with urgency and constitutional fairness.
The party spokesperson Inam Un Nabi said that seven years of incarceration of an elected MP without trial reaching its logical conclusion was not merely a legal matter but a serious test of justice, constitutional values and human conscience.
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.
Rashid, the founder and chief of the AIP, has been lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail since August 2019 following his arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in an alleged terror-funding case. Despite his long-term incarceration, he secured a historic victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Nabi along with party’s state secretary Sheikh Ashiq and general secretary Nazir Ahmad Khan addressed a press conference in Srinagar seeking timely disposal of Rashid’s bail question owing to his responsibilities as a public representative.
{{/usCountry}}Nabi along with party’s state secretary Sheikh Ashiq and general secretary Nazir Ahmad Khan addressed a press conference in Srinagar seeking timely disposal of Rashid’s bail question owing to his responsibilities as a public representative.
{{/usCountry}}“Er Rashid is not merely an accused. He is the democratically elected MP from Baramulla, representing nearly 40% of Kashmir’s population. For seven long years, the democratic voice of his constituents has remained away from the people who elected him,” Inam said.
He also stressed that the consequences of prolonged incarceration were not confined to Er Rashid alone. “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,” he said.
Referring to Article 21 of the Constitution, Inam 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 said.