NEW DELHI: A Delhi trial court on Saturday rejected the bail applications of activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying the Supreme Court had already junked their pleas moved on similar grounds.
Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai said the court had “no option but to follow” the Supreme Court’s January 5 order and, therefore, “could neither entertain the pleas nor grant them the relief”.
The judge added that the bail pleas were not even maintainable in the trial court.
“Although the applicants had argued that there was a change in circumstances following a division bench judgment of the top court in the case of Syed Iftikhar Andrabi, the issue concerning the divergence of opinion between that verdict and the Supreme Court’s judgment in Gulfisha Fatima versus State has already been referred to a larger bench. Unless the issue is settled, the court cannot consider the present applications,” the judge said.
The court further said it cannot even examine whether there is any change in circumstances, as it is bound by the Supreme Court’s January 5 order dismissing the bail pleas of both the applicants. On January 5, the Supreme Court refused bail to Khalid and Imam in the larger conspiracy case, while granting relief to co-accused Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria had then observed that there was a prima-facie case against Khalid and Imam under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and held that all accused could not be treated equally in view of the “hierarchy of participation”.
On May 18, a division bench of justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had expressed reservations about the judgment in the Gulfisha case, saying it did not follow the judgment given by a three-judge bench in 2021 in Union of India versus KA Najeeb, which said long delay in trials is a valid ground for bail even in cases under the stringent UAPA. Subsequently, a division bench led by Justice Arvind Kumar, while accepting there was “perceived conflict” among different benches with regard to the K A Najeeb ruling, referred the matter to a larger bench.
Khalid, Imam and others were booked under UAPA for allegedly being part of a larger conspiracy in the 2020 riots.
