Delhi court allows Engineer Rashid to attend Budget Session in custody
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court on Saturday granted custody parole to jailed Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid to attend the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament.
Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to his place of visit.
Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma passed the order, granting Rashid permission to attend the session that would begin on January 28, subject to conditions imposed earlier about travel costs and others.
Rashid's counsel Vikhyat Oberoi told the court that his client's appeal about travel costs is pending before the Delhi High Court.
In November last year, the court had granted Rashid custody parole to attend the Winter Session of Parliament on all dates.
It had also allowed him to attend the Monsoon Session between July 24 and August 4, 2025, in a similar manner.
In 2024, Rashid was granted interim bail to campaign for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls.
The Independent MP has been lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail since 2019, after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a 2017 terror-funding case.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rashid defeated National Conference's Omar Abdullah by over 2 lakh votes to win the Baramullah seat.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah accuses EC of ‘bias’, defends state guarantee schemes ahead of bypolls
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accused the EC of "double standards" and "bias" after it sought details on the state’s guarantee schemes in Davanagere and Bagalkot districts, where bypolls are scheduled for Thursday.
In a post on 'X' on Wednesday, Siddaramaiah said the Election Commission of India had asked the Karnataka government for information on fund releases under five ongoing guarantee schemes in the constituencies going to polls.
The polls were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs Shamanur Shivashankarappa and H Y Meti, respectively.
The schemes are Gruha Jyothi, which provides 200 units of free electricity to every household; Gruha Lakshmi, offering Rs 2,000 to women heading families; and Anna Bhagya, supplying 10 kg of rice per month to each member of BPL families.
In addition, Yuva Nidhi grants Rs 3,000 to unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 to unemployed diploma holders aged 18–25 for two years, while Shakti enables women to travel free of charge within Karnataka on government non-luxury buses.
Siddaramaiah alleged that the ECI had remained silent when similar cash transfer schemes were announced in Maharashtra and Bihar ahead of elections, calling the scrutiny of Karnataka’s schemes a "clear case of bias".
"In states like Maharashtra and Bihar, cash transfer schemes were announced or fast-tracked just before elections, directly benefiting voters. Yet the ECI remained silent. This is not neutrality—it is complicity," he said.
The CM accused the BJP and NDA governments of "a double standard", noting that when they act, the ECI "looks the other way", but when Karnataka fulfils its promises, it faces "intense scrutiny".
He added that targeting the state’s guarantee schemes is "not just political but anti-poor, anti-women, and anti-Karnataka."
Siddaramaiah clarified that these schemes were not launched in connection with the bypolls but are ongoing programmes implemented as part of the Congress government’s commitments from the 2023 Assembly elections.
Funds are transferred regularly to beneficiaries in a transparent and structured manner, he added.
"The guarantees are part of governance—a direct investment in human dignity, household stability, and economic participation, not inducement," he said.
He also accused the BJP of "hypocrisy", saying that while it criticises Karnataka’s schemes as "freebies", it rolls out similar programmes in states it governs.
"The Karnataka model has set a benchmark for the country. What is deeply concerning, however, is the ECI’s selective approach," Siddaramaiah added.
