A Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order on the bail applications of activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai reserved the matter after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and the defence. The court is expected to pronounce its order later in the day.
Khalid and Imam sought bail on the ground that their continued incarceration without the commencement of trial violates their fundamental right to personal liberty.
According to a report by news agency PTI, Khalid argued that although the Supreme Court had rejected his earlier bail plea on January 5, subsequent judicial developments amounted to a "change in circumstances", making his fresh application maintainable.
He referred to the apex court's observations in a May order in another case, where it reiterated that "bail is the rule" even in cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). His plea also cited Supreme Court judgments, including Union of India vs K A Najeeb and Vernon Gonsalves vs State of Maharashtra, to contend that statutory restrictions on bail under the UAPA cannot override constitutional protections when trials are unlikely to conclude within a reasonable time.
Khalid further submitted that he has spent nearly six years in custody without charges being framed and argued that the trial is unlikely to begin soon given the large number of accused, witnesses and prosecution documents, reported PTI.
Imam, in his application, said there had been no "significant development" in the proceedings even six months after the Supreme Court denied him bail. He also contended that he has remained in custody for nearly six years without trial and that charges are yet to be framed in the case, according to the report.
The fresh bail pleas were filed after the Supreme Court, on January 5, refused bail to both Khalid and Imam in the UAPA case while granting relief to co-accused Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad.
At the time, a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria held that there was a prima facie case against Khalid and Imam under the UAPA and observed that all accused could not be treated alike because of the "hierarchy of participation."
Khalid, Imam and several others have been charged under the UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being part of a larger conspiracy behind the February 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
The violence, which erupted during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
(With PTI inputs)