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– Photo: Amar Ujala
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The Delhi High Court will hear on Monday the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid in the UAPA case related to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the communal riots in Delhi in February 2020. The bail pleas of other co-accused in the case, Sharjeel Imam and Gulfisha Fatima, ‘United Against Hate’ founder Khalid Saifi and others, are also listed for fresh hearing before a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalindar Kaur.
Actually, these cases were earlier before a bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, but the judge was recently transferred as the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court. Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and several others have been booked under provisions of the anti-terrorism law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code for allegedly “masterminding” the February 2020 riots. In which 53 people were killed and more than 700 were injured.
Umar Khalid, arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020, has challenged the trial court’s May 28 order which had refused to grant him bail in the case. Notice on his appeal was issued by the High Court in July. The petitions of Imam, Saifi and other accused were filed in 2022 and have been listed before various benches from time to time since then.
Sharjeel Imam, in his appeal filed in 2022, has challenged the trial court’s order dated April 11, 2022, in which he was denied bail. Police had arrested Imam in this case on August 25, 2020. On May 28, the trial court had rejected Umar Khalid’s plea seeking regular bail for the second time.
