New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday refused bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case but granted it to five others, citing “hierarchy of participation” and putting the two on a “qualitatively different footing”.
Khalid and Imam, who have been incarcerated since 2020, were involved in the “planning, mobilisation and strategic direction” of the riots, a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria said. While the jail doors shut tighter for the two, activists Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad got bail from the apex court.
Khalid and Imam can file fresh bail applications after the examination of protected witnesses or after one year from today, the court said in a ruling keenly awaited by the accused, the families of the victims in the riots, rights activists and others.
It was not clear when exactly the other five, behind bars in different jails in the city, would be released and how long the process would take. Lawyers were hopeful they would be out on Tuesday.
The February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi broke out during widespread protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
Khalid, cause célèbre and most recently in the news after New York’s new mayor Zohran Mamdani sent him a handwritten empathetic note, was resigned as it were to his life in jail for his alleged role in the communal violence.
“Ab yahi zindagi hai (this is my life now),” Khalid told his partner Banojyotsna Lahiri after the Supreme Court ruling came in.
“I am really happy for the others, who got bail! So relieved’,” she quoted him as saying on the order that polarised public and political opinion.
Khalid was arrested on September 13, 2020 on charges of delivering provocative speeches on February 24 and 25 when Donald Trump, in his first term as president, visited India.
Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020 for speeches made during anti-CAA protests. He was later arrested in a larger conspiracy case in August 2020.
His uncle Arshad Imam told reporters in Jehanabad, Bihar, that he was shocked. “I had high hopes that the court would grant bail this time, as every point during the arguments indicated that Sharjeel is innocent. Still, as an Indian, I respect the verdict of the court,” he said, expressing the hope his nephew would eventually be released on bail.
According to the apex court, delay in trial does not operate as a “trump card” which automatically displaces statutory safeguards.
“All the appellants do not stand on equal footing as regards culpability. The hierarchy of participation emerging from the prosecution’s case requires the court to examine each application individually,” the bench said, adding that the roles attributed to them are different.
“This court is satisfied that the prosecution material disclosed a prima facie allegation against the appellants Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam… This stage of proceedings does not justify their enlargement on bail,” the court said.
It also said the two stand on qualitatively different footing as compared to other accused.
Directing the trial court to expedite the process of bail, the bench imposed 12 conditions and said the misuse of liberty would attract cancellation of bail.
The Supreme Court ruling divided political parties down the middle.
While the BJP termed Khalid and Imam the “poster boys” of divisive forces in India, opposition leaders raised questions over the denial of bail and several pointed out that it came on a day rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim left jail on 40-day parole for the 15th time since 2017.
“Satyameva Jayate (truth alone triumphs),” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla wrote on X.
The BJP also asked the Congress to apologise for supporting the “tukde-tukde gang”.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said she welcomed the court decision. “Those who pushed Delhi into the fire of riots should receive the strictest possible punishment,” Gupta told PTI.
Though the Congress did not comment till evening, several others did. Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas said, “The principle that ‘bail is the rule, jail the exception’ clearly does not apply when it comes to certain individuals… convicted rapist and murderer Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (sentenced in 2017) has just been granted yet another 40-day parole – his 15th temporary release from prison since conviction. One languishes indefinitely without trial. The other enjoys repeated ‘jail vacations’ on demand,” he said.
His party said the continued denial of bail is against the principles of natural justice and the UAPA is being used to crush dissent.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha said the denial of bail raises “troubling questions about how much incarceration must be endured before constitutional protections are activated and achieved”.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti termed the order a “travesty of justice”.
“On one hand Gurmeet Singh convicted for rape and murder continues to receive parole after parole. On the other Umar Khalid, merely an accused yet to face trial, has been languishing in jail for over five years & repeatedly denied bail by no less than the Supreme Court of India today. The scales of justice are breaking under the burden of injustice,” Mehbooba Mufti said in a post on X.
On December 10, the top court reserved its verdict on separate pleas of the accused after hearing arguments from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for Delhi Police, and senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Singhvi, Siddhartha Dave, Salman Khurshid and Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the accused.
Strongly opposing the bail pleas, Delhi Police said the riots were not spontaneous but an orchestrated, pre-planned and well-designed attack on India’s sovereignty.
The additional solicitor general argued that Khalid deliberately planned to leave Delhi before the riots as he wanted to deflect responsibility.
Seeking bail, Imam expressed anguish before the apex court for being labelled a “dangerous intellectual terrorist” without a full-fledged trial or a single conviction.
The seven accused, who who moved the apex court, challenging the Delhi High Court’s September 2 order denying them bail in the larger conspiracy case, were booked under the anti-terror UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the riots.
According to Section 16 of the UAPA, “Whoever commits a terrorist act shall, if such act has resulted in the death of any person, be punishable with death or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.” PTI PKS AO MIJ SLB SUK PK MIN MIN MIN
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