New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday dismissed appeals filed by former JNU student leaders Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, along with seven others, challenging trial court orders denying them bail in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case. All nine accused have remained in custody since 2020, and the trial is yet to begin.
A division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur had reserved its verdict on 9 July after hearing the batch of petitions, which have been pending in the high court since 2022 and were earlier heard by multiple benches.
The FIR in the case was registered by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell in 2020 under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The accused who had approached the high court include Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi, and Gulfisha Fatima.
The charges arise out of the communal violence that broke out in Northeast Delhi on 23 February 2020, following protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which left at least 53 people dead and hundreds injured. According to the Delhi Police’s Special Cell and Crime Branch, the violence was the result of a “deep conspiracy”, allegedly masterminded by Khalid, with its foundation laid during the anti-CAA and NRC protests of 2019.
Sharjeel Imam was arrested in August 2020, while Khalid and others were later named in the chargesheet. Khalid’s bail plea also remained pending before the Supreme Court between May 2023 and January 2024, before he withdrew it citing a “change in circumstances”. He returned to the trial court and subsequently approached the high court again in February this year.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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