The Delhi High Court will hear Umar Khalid’s bail plea tomorrow, on Monday in a UAPA case linked to the alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots. Co-accused Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, and Khalid Saifi’s bail pleas will also be heard. Khalid, charged under UAPA and IPC for allegedly masterminding the riots, has challenged a trial court’s refusal to grant him bail.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will hear the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid on Monday in connection with a UAPA case linked to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 Delhi riots. The riots, which occurred during protests against the CAA and NRC, left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
Other co-accused, including Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, and ‘United Against Hate’ founder Khalid Saifi, will also have their bail pleas heard by a bench comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur.
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Previously, the cases were heard by a bench led by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, who was recently transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court as Chief Justice. Khalid, Imam, and others have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly orchestrating the riots. Imam, arrested in August 2020, and Saifi have been appealing their bail denials since 2022, with their cases being heard by different benches over time.
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Umar Khalid was arrested in September 2020 and has repeatedly sought bail. His latest appeal challenges a trial court’s May 28 order, which refused him regular bail for the second time, citing that the earlier dismissal had reached finality. Sharjeel Imam’s appeal also challenges a trial court order from April 2022, which denied him bail.
The Trial Court said,
“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,”
On October 18, 2022, the High Court upheld the rejection of Umar Khalid’s first bail plea, stating that the city police’s allegations were prima facie credible. The court noted that the anti-CAA protests had “metamorphosed into violent riots” that appeared to be orchestrated during conspiratorial meetings, with witness statements suggesting Khalid’s “active involvement” in the protests.