Violence broke out during the ongoing protests against the CAA and NRC. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Delhi High Court will hear on November 25 the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid and student activist Sharjeel Imam in the UAPA case related to the alleged larger conspiracy that led to communal riots here in February 2020.
Two bail pleas, along with similar pleas of other co-accused in the case — ‘United Against Hate’ founder Khalid Saifi and others — were on Monday listed for re-hearing before a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur.
Click here to contact us on WhatsApp
However, the bench did not meet.
The cases were earlier before a bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait but the judge was recently transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court as the chief justice.
Khalid, Imam and several others have been booked under the anti-terrorism law under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly “masterminding” the February 2020 riots, which left 53 people dead. . and more than 700 were injured.
Violence broke out during the ongoing protests against the CAA and NRC.
Khalid, who was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020, defied the court’s May 28 order, which refused to grant him bail in the case. A notice of his appeal was issued by the high court in July.
The pleas of Imam, Saifi and the other accused were filed in 2022 and have been listed in different benches from time to time since then.
Imam, in his 2022 appeal, violated the court’s April 11, 2022 order denying him bail. The police arrested Imam in the current case on August 25, 2020.
On May 28, the court rejected Khalid’s second bail application, saying its earlier order rejecting his first bail application had reached its conclusion.
“When the Delhi High Court has already dismissed the appeal of the petitioner (Khalid) vide order dated October 18, 2022, and thereafter, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court and withdrew his petition, the order of this court which was passed on March 24. , 2022 (on the first bail), has come to an end and now, by mere thought, this court can analyze the facts of the case as it wishes the petitioner and consider the relief as prayed for,” the court had said.
On October 18, 2022, the high court upheld the dismissal of the original bail application and declared the city police’s allegations against Khalid to be true.
The apex court said it was admitted, the protests against the CAA “turned into violent riots”, which “seems to have been organized in coalition meetings” and witness statements showing Khalid’s “involvement” in the protests.
(Only the headline and image for this report may have been reused by Business Standard staff; other content is automatically generated from the trade feed.)
First published: October 07 2024 | 12:16 PM IST