Activist Umar Khalid approach Supreme Court seeking bail in 2020 Delhi riots case

Activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid has approached the Supreme Court seeking bail in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 Delhi riots. The plea challenges the Delhi High Court order that had denied him bail.

On Saturday, Ex-JNU student Sharjeel Imam approached the Supreme Court seeking bail in the UAPA case linked to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 north-east Delhi riots.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday denied bail to Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and seven others in connection with the riots. Apart from Khalid and Imam, Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur also dismissed the bail pleas of Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi, and Gulfisha Fatima. The bail pleas of Khalid and Imam have been pending since



2022.

While pronouncing the order, the High Court observed that the grant of bail on the sole ground of long incarceration and delay in trial "is not a universally applicable rule in all cases".

Khalid and Imam were accused of being part of a larger conspiracy that led to the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February 2020 over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The violence left over 50 dead and more than 700 injured.

Delhi Police have accused Khalid, Imam, and others of being the "masterminds" of the violence. The activists were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Khalid, who was arrested in September 2020, has been in jail since then. Last year, in December, Khalid was granted a brief seven-day interim bail to attend a family wedding.