Supreme Court To Hear Bail Pleas Of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam On Sept 19

The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned for September 19 pleas of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima and Meeran Haider challenging the Delhi High Court order which denied them bail in the UAPA case linked to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 north-east Delhi riots.

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria adjourned the case, saying they got the case files late last night and didn't get time to read.

The Delhi High Court on September 2, had denied bail to Mr Imam, Mr Khalid and seven others - Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima.

On September 2, the bail plea of another accused Tasleem Ahmed was rejected by a different High Court bench.

Delhi Police had opposed their bail pleas saying it was not a case of spontaneous riots but a case where riots were "planned well in advance" with a "sinister motive and well-thought-out conspiracy".

The High Court had observed that prima facie, the role of Mr Imam and Mr Khalid in the entire conspiracy was "grave", having delivered inflammatory speeches on communal lines to "instigate mass mobilisation of members of the Muslim community."

Mr Khalid sought bail from the top court in the larger conspiracy case under the stringent provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in Delhi riots case in February 2020.

In 2020, the Delhi police had arrested Ex-JNU student Sharjeel Imam under the UAPA and named him as the main conspirator behind the Delhi riots case.

The violence had erupted during the protests against then-proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) and had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured. 

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