New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) The BJP on Monday said that the Supreme Court order denying bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case is a “big slap” on the Congress’ face and demanded that the opposition party apologise for supporting the “tukde-tukde gang”.
Calling Khalid and Imam the “poster boys” of divisive forces in India, the BJP claimed that the Congress ecosystem was projecting them as “innocent victims” to protect them.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant bail to Khalid and Imam, saying there was a prima facie case against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria, however, granted bail to activists Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan, and Shadab Ahmad.
It noted that prosecution material suggests that Khalid and Imam were involved in “planning, mobilisation and strategic direction” of the 2020 Delhi riots.
Latching on to the apex court’s decision, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla asked, “When such a major and clear decision has already come from the Supreme Court, will the Congress rub its nose on the ground and apologise to the families of Ankit Sharma, Ratan Lal, and Dilbar Negi who were killed in Delhi?” He also asked the Samajwadi Party, the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party if they would apologise to the families of the Hindus killed in the riots.
Poonawalla alleged that the Delhi riots were an example of the “biggest industry of anti-Hindu sentiment, the ‘M’ factor and the vote-bank factor”.
“It was neither spontaneous nor organic, but completely sponsored and organised. There was a clear intent behind the riots, as has been seen in several countries in recent years, and for which leaders of parties like the Congress and the Samajwadi Party openly or covertly pray, hoping for a violent overthrow of power,” he alleged.
“From this very perspective, an attempt was made here at an anti-Hindu massacre (in Delhi riots), just as was done a thousand years ago,” the BJP spokesperson told a press conference at the party headquarters here.
In a post on X, Poonawalla wrote, “Satyameva Jayate (truth alone triumphs)”.
“The Supreme Court has denied bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. Prima facie allegations are true,” he said.
The Congress must apologise for its support to the “tukde-tukde gang, from Afzal to Umar and Sharjeel”, Poonawalla said.
BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari termed the apex court’s decision a “big slap” on the face of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress ecosystem, alleging that they portrayed “tukde-tukde poster boys Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam as innocent victims”.
In the court of public opinion and the court of law, Gandhi’s “urban Naxals” stand defeated, he charged.
Bhandari said, “Will the Congress apologise to the nation to project tukde-tukde forces inimical to India as victims?” The BJP often uses the “tukde-tukde gang” phrase, coined in the aftermath of a JNU protest in Delhi in 2016 where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, to refer to elements it claims want to break the country. PTI PK RT
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