Umar Khalid suffered a major setback as he lost his much-anticipated bail plea in the Supreme Court in the 2020 Delhi riots case, amid a high-decibel international campaign to free him. The bench also barred him and another activist Sharjeel Imam, both 37, from filing a fresh appeal for a year. It, however, released five others on conditional bail. All of them had been arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and are facing trial for the alleged ‘plot’ they hatched ahead of the riots in the wake of widespread protests against the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act. The bench observed that the material before them showed a central and formative role of Khalid and Imam, and “involvement in the level of planning, mobilisation and strategic direction extending beyond episodic and localised acts”. It attracted Section 43D(5) of UAPA, which says an accused shall not be released on bail if there are reasonable grounds to believe prima facie that the charges are true. While 43D(5) does not totally bar judicial scrutiny on the evidence, defence arguments are not to be examined at the bail stage, the bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria ruled. Though the accused have been in custody for more than five years, their “continued detention has not crossed constitutional impermissibility to override the statutory embargo as against them”. Besides, delay in trial under the UAPA does not automatically offer as a trump card for bail, the bench ruled.
The court examined each individual’s role separately. Considering all seven together would risk needless pre-trial detention, the court reasoned. For example, the bail application of Gulfisha Fatima, who was among the five set free, was listed 90 times. However, the matter was not taken up 25 times due to the unavailability of the bench and was renotified 26 times, her counsel told the court. Days before the verdict, a letter to Khalid from New York City’s new mayor Zohran Mamdani became a media spectacle. Eight US lawmakers wrote to the Indian envoy in the US urging bail for all the accused till their trial is over. All that came to nought for Khalid and Imam, as the custodians of law took their own course. The least that the prosecution can now do is, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s instruction, ensure that the trial is not unnecessarily prolonged.