NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned to September 19 bail pleas of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and seven others in the UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in the national capital.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria said it received the files very late.
The top court bench, thereby fixed the bail pleas of Imam, Khalid and seven others -- Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima -- for hearing to September 19, Friday.
On September 6, the former JNU student, Sharjeel Imam, moved the SC, after the Delhi High Court rejected his bail plea on September 2.
Those who faced bail rejection include Khalid, Imam, Fatima, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Shadab Ahmed.
Similarly, the former JNU student Umar Khalid on September 10, Wednesday, approached the Supreme Court challenging Delhi High Court's order rejecting him bail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case related to the alleged criminal conspiracy in the February 2020 riots in the national capital.
According to the prosecution, Delhi Police had booked Imam under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). On January 28, 2020, he was arrested by the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch from Bihar’s Jehanabad in a sedition case for allegedly making inflammatory speeches in the Jamia Millia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University.
The riots took place in February 2020, following clashes over the then-proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). As per the Delhi Police, the riots caused the death of 53 persons and injured hundreds.
The prosecution alleged that the accused, Imam, had hatched a larger criminal conspiracy to cause multiple riots. The FIR in this case was registered by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the UAPA.
Imam was booked in multiple FIRs across several states, mostly under sedition and UAPA charges. Besides Delhi, Imam is facing FIRs in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
Imam was granted bail by the Delhi HC last year for his alleged speeches he gave at Jamia Milia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University. In the sedition cases registered in Aligarh and Guwahati, he was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in 2021 and the Gauhati HC in 2020, respectively. He was also booked in FIRs (First Information Report) in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
The social activist and former JNU student Khalid has been in jail since his arrest by the Delhi Police on September 14, 2020, for his alleged involvement in the Delhi riots case. He was booked under the very stringent UAPA charge for his alleged larger conspiracy behind the Delhi Riots case. He, denied the charges and claimed innocent in the case.
Khalid had earlier approached the top court challenging an October 2022 Delhi High Court verdict that had denied bail to him. Since then, he has been in jail and never been on bail, despite his best efforts and filing constant appeals across courts, pleading to be released on bail.
He had initially, in the Delhi the High Court, sought bail on grounds that he neither had any "criminal role" in the violence in the city's North-East area nor any "conspiratorial connect" with any other accused in the case. The Delhi police had opposed the bail plea of Khalid in the HC.
The police also arrested Imam, activist- Khalid Saifi, JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, former AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) Councillor, Tahir Hussain and several others under the stringent law in the case.
According to the prosecution, the violence had erupted following protests against the CAA and NRC. The protests had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
Khalid was charge-sheeted in the case, along with other accused persons.