The Delhi High Court will hear the bail application of former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid on Monday. This relates to a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act concerning the alleged wider conspiracy behind the communal riots in February 2020.
Before a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, the bail applications of other co-accused in the case, including student activist Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, founder of “United Against Hate,” Khalid Saifi, and others, are also scheduled for a fresh hearing.
The cases were previously heard by a bench led by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait; however, the judge was recently transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court as its Chief Justice.
According to the Indian Penal Code and the anti-terror law UAPA, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and several other individuals have been charged for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the riots in February 2020 that resulted in over 700 injured and 53 deaths.
The violence had occurred during the demonstrations against the NRC and CAA. After being taken into custody by the Delhi Police in September 2020, Umar Khalid has challenged a May 28 trial court ruling that denied him bail.
The top court sent him a notice on his appeal in July. Since 2022, the pleas of Imam, Saifi, and the other accused have been frequently put before several benches.
In his 2022 appeal, Sharjeel Imam challenges a trial court ruling from April 11, 2022, which denied him bail. On August 25, 2020, Imam was taken into custody by the police in the current case.
Umar Khalid’s appeal for regular bail was denied by the trial court on May 28. The judge stated that its previous order to deny his first bail application had become final.
“When the Delhi high court has already dismissed the criminal appeal of the applicant (Khalid) vide order dated October 18, 2022, and thereafter, the applicant approached the Supreme Court and withdrew his petition, the order of this court as passed on March 24, 2022 (on the first bail plea), has attained finality and now, in no stretch of imagination this court can make analysis of the facts of the case as desired by the applicant and consider the relief as prayed by him,” the trial court had said.
The first bail application was dismissed by the high court on October 18, 2022, and it was declared that Umar Khalid’s charges by the city police are prima facie true.
The high court had said that certainly the anti-CAA protests ‘metamorphosed into violent riots’, which ‘prima facie seemed to be orchestrated at the conspiratorial meetings’ and the statements of the witnesses show Khalid’s ‘active involvement’ in the protests.
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