The Delhi High Court granted Umar Khalid three-day interim bail to visit his ailing mother in the hospital. It directed that he remain at the specified address and only visit his mother, restricting him from going anywhere else.
The Delhi High Court granted Umar Khalid an activist and former JNU student leader three days of interim bail so he can attend to his mother’s surgery.
Khalid, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in a UAPA case connected to the 2020 Delhi riots, will be released on interim bail from June 1 to June 3.
Earlier, Khalid had approached the Delhi High Court seeking interim bail for 15 days, from May 22 to June 5, and asked the court to set aside a trial court order dated May 19 that had rejected his request for temporary release.
In his appeal, filed under Section 21(4) of the National Investigation Agency Act, Khalid said he required interim bail to attend the Chehlum ceremony for his late maternal uncle and to look after his 62-year-old mother. He stated that his mother is scheduled to undergo lump excision surgery on June 2.
Khalid argued that he shared a special bonding with his deceased uncle since childhood and that he could not seek bail at the time of the uncle’s death because the uncle passed away on a Friday evening and was buried the following day.
He said this left too little time for his lawyers and family to obtain instructions from him while he was in Tihar Jail.
The appeal added that the Chehlum ceremony marks the end of a 40-day mourning period and provides an opportunity for family members to gather for emotional support and closure. Khalid also said he wants to spend time with his 87-year-old grandmother during the interim bail period.
On medical grounds, the plea stated that Khalid’s mother, Sabiha Khanam, has been dealing with lumps and cyst formation on her back for the past two years. It further said she was advised surgery after being examined at Alshifa Multi-Speciality Hospital on May 7.
Khalid submitted that his father, 71, is unable to care for his wife alone, and that four of Khalid’s five sisters are married and live away from the parental home. He said he is the eldest child and the only son in the family and therefore needs to be there to support his mother before and after the surgery.
The trial court, while dismissing Khalid’s interim bail request on May 19, had observed that the grounds cited for temporary release were not reasonable. Khalid has been in custody since September 2020 in the broader conspiracy case stemming from FIR 59/2020.
The prosecution alleges that the 2020 northeast Delhi riots were part of a pre-planned conspiracy linked to protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a charge Khalid has denied.
Umar Khalid was arrested in September 2020 in connection with the alleged larger conspiracy behind the communal violence that erupted in northeast Delhi in February 2020.
The riots, which took place during protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), resulted in widespread violence, deaths, injuries and extensive damage to property.
Investigating agencies alleged that the violence was part of a pre-planned conspiracy involving several activists and accused persons. Khalid has consistently denied the allegations against him.
He has been charged with offences including criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly and other serious offences under the UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code.