The Delhi High Court on Tuesday denied bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Tasleem Ahmed, Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider and four others in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur pronounced the order on the bail pleas of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima. The court had reserved its order on July 9 on the pleas filed in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The prosecution opposed the pleas arguing that 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”.

Khalid, Imam and others were booked under UAPA and provisions of IPC for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots. A total of 53 people had died and over 700 were injured in the violence erupted during the protests against the CAA and NRC.

The arrests were made in 2020 and the case has been under consideration of the court since then.

Reacting to the order, senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan said, “This denial of Bail to Umar Khalid & 6 others by the Delhi HC after 5 years of incarceration w/o trial is not just a mockery of justice, but will go down in history as an unerasable blot on the record of these judges. Pathetic!”

ALSO READ

Petitioners’ argument for bail

In their pleas, Umar Khalid and others made requests for bail. Umar Khalid submitted that merely being on WhatsApp groups, without sending any message, is no criminality. His lawyer submitted that money or anything else was not recovered from Khalid and that the alleged secret meeting on the night of 23-24 February 2020 was not at all secretive as claimed by the prosecution, reported Live Law.

On the other hand, accused Khalid Saifi asked “Can UAPA on the basis of innocuous messages or their (prosecution) attempt to make stories out of such messages, can it become a reason to deny me bail or is it even a ground to prosecute me under UAPA?” He sought bail on the ground of parity with three co-accused persons who have been released on bail in June 2021.

Sharjeel Imam claimed that he was completely disconnected from all the co-accused persons and was not part of any kind of conspiracy or meetings as alleged by the Delhi Police.