NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday the bail pleas of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and two other accused in the 2020 Delhi riots case. A two-judge bench of the top court, headed by Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria, will take up the matter.
On September 6, the former JNU student, Sharjeel Imam, moved the SC, after the Delhi High Court rejected his bail plea. He sought bail in the larger conspiracy case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in relation to the 2020 North East Delhi riots case.
Similarly, the former JNU student Umar Khalid on September 10, Wednesday, approached the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's order rejecting his 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 the 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.
Imam is also facing FIRs in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Imam was granted bail by the Delhi HC last year for the 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 High Court in 2020, respectively. He was also booked in FIRs (First Information Report) in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
The Delhi HC had on September 2 rejected the bail plea of nine persons, including Khalid and Imam, in the case, saying "conspiratorial" violence under the garb of demonstrations or protests by citizens couldn't be allowed.
The HC, which had rejected other accused's bail plea, included Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima and Shadab Ahmed.
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 innocence 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 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.
However, the Delhi police had opposed the bail plea of Khalid in the HC. The police had 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. Khalid was charge-sheeted in the case, along with other accused persons.