NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday took cognisance of the fresh supplementary charge sheet filed against former JNU student Umar Khalid, university’s research scholar Sharjeel Imam and Faizan Khan in a case related to the alleged conspiracy in the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February.
“After perusal of the charge sheet and accompanying documents, there is sufficient material to proceed against accused persons,” Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said in the order.
The court has directed the counsel of the accused to collect the soft copy of the charge sheet on December 2 afternoon. Faizan, who is on bail, has been summoned on December 22.
“Since two accused persons, namely Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, are present today with their counsel through Webex app, hence, there is no need to issue summons,” the court said.
On Sunday, the Delhi Police had filed a supplementary charge sheet, running into 930 pages, against the trio. The case pertains to a ‘conspiracy’ to incite the riots, which had left 53 people dead and 748 injured.
The police have claimed that the communal violence was a premeditated conspiracy allegedly hatched by Khalid and others.
Khalid allegedly asked people to rope in Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants in the anti-CAA protests to stoke the North East Delhi riots, police quoted a protected witness in their supplementary chargesheet.
The chargesheet further alleged that it was decided in 2019 by Khalid and co-accused Sharjeel Imam that masjids should be the focal point of starting the protest and services of Imams should be utilised for mobilisation for Chakka Jaam.
Calling him a "veteran of sedition", the police said in its chargesheet, "Umar Khalid, with his intellectual acumen, knew very well that a large majority of Indian Muslims will never subscribe to the perverted definition of Islam being exposed by his disciple Sharjeel Imam and no amount of rhetoric and obfuscation of facts will be enough to brainwash the Indian Muslims into actually believing that CAA would question their nationality."
"Therefore, while some Indian Muslims will join chorus and play games to his thoughts, those who would be most eager to cross the lines had to be located and used for stoking communal frenzy," the chargesheet alleged.
According to the statement of one of the protected witnesses, which is part of the chargesheet, Khalid had allegedly asked people to rope in Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants in the anti-CAA protests to stoke the riots.
"Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants were the easiest to locate and use because of their socio-economic disadvantages and ghettoised living in the national capital," the chargesheet alleged.
The chargesheet further claimed it was not surprising that while Khalid was safely away by over 1,000 km from Delhi, it was the women from Jahangir Puri, who travelled about 60 km over the day to reach Jafrabad-Seelampur, to be revived by arrested accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Gulfisha Fatima.
They took on the deployed police forces by use of chilli powder, crushed glass bottles and stones which led to riots, it alleged.
"Umar Khalid was the 'silent whisper' behind the first phase of the riots which took place in December 2019. The constitution of MSJ (Muslim students of Jamia), its association with SOJ (students of Jamia) and whatever happened in Jamia Millia and in select location of north east Delhi in December 2019 bears the unmistakable hallmark of a maturing Umar Khalid, learning from his experiences of 2016 and aiming towards engineering a large-scale communal riot," it stated.
Khalid was clear that that when Delhi will be thrown to fire, he shall be keeping a safe distance to create the "perfect alibi" if the conspiracy gets exposed, police have alleged in their supplementary charge sheet filed in a case of northeast Delhi riots.
According to the charge sheet, Khalid was invited to Patna as a "star speaker for the anti-CAA/NRC protests" in Bihar and he accepted it as it allegedly provided a "paid get away from Delhi at the same time when the conspiracy hatched by him had started fructifying".
"As has been detailed in the main charge sheet, Umar Khalid, being one of the topmost conspirators as established so far and with his previous brushes with law, was clear in his mind that when Delhi will be thrown to fire, he shall be keeping a safe physical distance to create the perfect alibi if the conspiracy gets exposed.
"The investigation carried out after his arrest led to those characters who were instrumental in facilitating his departure from Delhi on 23 February 2020, after the initial sparks had been lighted, even though being unaware of the sinister co-incidence," it alleged.
It further claimed that the flight ticket was allegedly booked by one Tariq.
"Accused Umar Khalid had boarded flight to Patna, leaving Delhi at 9.30 am. This flight ticket had been booked by one Tariq. He had invited Umar Khalid to Bihar as star speaker for the anti-CAA/NRC protests being held there since he had political ambitions."
"Tariq is organiser of one of the protests held in Nawada, Bihar against CAA/NRC. Umar Khalid gladly accepted the invite since it provided a paid get away from Delhi at the same time when the conspiracy hatched by him had started fructifying," it alleged.
The charge sheet against the three accused was filed under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and sections related to criminal conspiracy, murder, rioting, sedition, unlawful assembly and promoting enmity on the grounds of religion, language, caste under the Indian Penal Code.
The first 17,500-page charge sheet in the case against 15 people was filed by Delhi Police two months ago.
It named Tahir Hussain, Safoora Zargar, Gulfisha Khatoon, Devangana Kalita, Shafa-ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Ishrat Jahan, Meeran Haidar, Shadab Ahamd, Talsim Ahmad, Saleem Malik, Mohammed Salim Khan and Athar Khan.
More excerpts from the chargesheet
There could not have been a "greater international embarrassment" for the Indian government than to have communal riots raging in the national capital during US President Donald Trump's visit in February, the chargesheet also said.
The supplementary charge sheet was filed against former JNU student leader Umar Khalid and the varsity student Sharjeel Imam under relevant sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, rioting, sedition, unlawful assembly, criminal conspiracy, murder, promoting enmity on the grounds of religion, language, caste etc and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
"There could not have been a greater international embarrassment for the government of India than to have communal riots raging in the national capital while a visit by the US President was underway in February," it said.
It further claimed that the end objective of all the conspirators was to uproot a lawfully elected government by sheer use of "engineered, vicious and visceral" communal violence.
"Had the conspirators been fully successful, the foundation of the government would have been shaken, leaving the Indian people exposed to uncertainty, lawlessness and anarchy and inducing a loss of faith in the ability of the state to protect their life and property.
"The end objective of all that the conspirators had conspired to was to uproot a lawfully elected government by sheer use of engineered, vicious and visceral communal violence, the charge sheet alleged.
Imam's "religious fanaticism" coupled with his academic legacy and sharp oratory skills was the "perfect combination" that his mentor Umar Khalid was looking to exploit, police has alleged in its supplementary chargesheet filed in a case related to the Northeast Delhi riots.
It further alleged that for the "deeply communal" Khalid, Imam was the "unapologetic floating froth of religious extremism who was to be used for executing the precipitation of the conspiracy in the riots".
It alleged that Imam's academic, religious and oratory instincts were to become an asset for the key conspirators of the case in the days to come.
"Four events that ultimately led to the emergence of the religious extremist that was taking shape within the conscience of Sharjeel Imam were passage of law declaring triple talaq as illegal, final judgement in the Babri-Masjid case, revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India and the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
"Imam was an active participant in events and occasions observed within JNU campus and was well received for his oratorial skills. Umar Khalid, his mentor had a special interest in Sharjeel Imam. The religious fanaticism of Sharjeel coupled with his academic legacy and sharp rhetorical skills was just the perfect combination that Umar Khalid was looking to exploit to execute the lessons learnt from his attempted seditious uprising in JNU in 2016," the chargesheet alleged.
It further claimed that Khalid, in public discourse, always pretended that "atheism" was his faith.
"Events have shown otherwise," the chargesheet said.
It said investigation showed that the concept of disruptive "chakka jaam" which later developed into engineered violent riots in furtherance of a common conspiracy was allegedly hatched by Imam with principal conspirators.
The chargesheet also mentioned the names of some of Imam's academic works.
"Sharjeel Imam joined JNU in 2013 as a student of masters in modern history and his thesis was titled 'Exodus before Partition: The attack on Muslims of Bihar in 1946' which dealt extensively with riots and communal programs. While Imam was engaged in his academic pursuits at JNU, the university had witnessed the first registered criminal case pertaining to acts of sedition wherein his later day mentor Umar Khalid was the prime accused."
"His (Imam's) academic expressions can be found in leading digital media platforms and some of those pertaining to the period, when his ultra-Islamist world view were crystallising, read as 'The Hindu Republic: Seven decades of Muslim exclusion in India', 'It's time we absolve Jinnah', 'Remembering 1980: Moradabad Muslim massacre: A harsh indictment of 'secular' and left politics', 'Islamophobia in JNU is also rampant among left wing student organisations claiming to be secular'," it claimed.
The police said in the supplementary chargesheet that Imam withdrew from the Shaheen Bagh protest on January 2, 2020, but whether he had actually withdrawn or not can also be understood by the utterings of those who hold "at par stature in the cobweb of this conspiracy".
(With PTI Inputs)