Court rejects bail pleas of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam in 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case

A Delhi court on Saturday rejected the bail pleas of student activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.

Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai dismissed the applications after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and the defence.

Khalid and Imam had sought bail on the ground that their continued incarceration without the commencement of trial violated their fundamental right to personal liberty. Both have been in judicial custody for nearly six years in the case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Khalid argued that although the Supreme Court had earlier rejected his bail plea, subsequent judicial developments constituted a "change in circumstances" warranting reconsideration. His application referred to the apex court's observations in a May order in another case, which reiterated that "bail is the rule" even in cases under the UAPA.

The fresh bail applications were filed after the Supreme Court, on 5 January, refused to grant them bail in the larger conspiracy case.

In his plea, Imam submitted that there had been no significant progress in the proceedings in the six months since the Supreme Court's order. He argued that despite nearly six years in custody, charges had yet to be framed, resulting in prolonged incarceration without the commencement of trial.

Khalid similarly cited the delay in the proceedings, stating that he had remained in custody for almost six years while the trial had yet to begin.

His application relied on the Supreme Court's observations in its 18 May order in an unrelated terror case, in which a two-judge Bench, while granting bail to an accused, criticised an earlier 5 January judgment and observed that anti-terror legislation should not become a means of indefinite detention.

The plea also cited several Supreme Court judgments, including Union of India v. K.A. Najeeb and Vernon Gonsalves v. State of Maharashtra, to contend that statutory restrictions on bail under the UAPA cannot override constitutional safeguards where a trial is unlikely to conclude within a reasonable period.

On 5 January, the Supreme Court denied bail to Khalid and Imam while granting relief to co-accused Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad in the same case.

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 UAPA. The court also held that all accused could not be treated alike, citing what it described as the "hierarchy of participation" in the alleged conspiracy.

Khalid, Imam and several others have been booked under the UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on allegations of being part of a larger conspiracy behind the violence that erupted in northeast Delhi in February 2020.

The riots occurred during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.