Delhi riots 2020: HC to hear bail pleas of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam in UAPA case on Nov 25

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will hear on November 25 the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid and student activist Sharjeel Imam in a UAPA case related to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the communal riots here in February 2020.

The two bail pleas, along with similar pleas by other co-accused in the case –‘United Against Hate’ founder Khalid Saifi and others — were on Monday listed for fresh hearing before a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur.

The bench, however, did not assemble.

The cases were earlier before a bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait but the judge was recently transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court as its chief justice.

Khalid, Imam and several others have been booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence had erupted during the protests against the CAA and NRC.

Khalid, who was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020, has assailed a trial court order of May 28, which refused to grant him bail in the case. Notice on his appeal was issued by the high court in July.

The pleas of Imam, Saifi and other accused were filed in 2022 and have been listed before different benches from time to time since then.

Imam, in his appeal filed in 2022, has assailed a trial court order of April 11, 2022 which refused to grant him bail. The police had arrested Imam in the present case on August 25, 2020.

On May 28, the trial court had rejected Khalid’s plea seeking regular bail for the second time, saying its previous order dismissing his first bail application had attained finality.

“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.

On October 18, 2022, the high court had upheld the dismissal of the first bail plea and said the city police’s allegations against Khalid are prima facie true.

The high court had said that admittedly, 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 indicate Khalid’s “active involvement” in the protests.