Delhi riots 2020: HC to hear Umar Khalid’s bail plea in UAPA case

New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) The Delhi High Court will on Monday hear the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid in a UAPA case related to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the riots here in February 2020.

The plea, which assails a recent trial court order refusing to grant bail to Khalid, is scheduled to be heard by a bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma.

Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and several others have been booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence had erupted during the protests against CAA and NRC.

Khalid was arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020.

On May 28, the trial court had rejected Khalid’s plea seeking regular bail for the second time, saying its previous order dismissing his first bail application had attained finality.

“When the Delhi High Court has already dismissed the criminal appeal of the applicant (Khalid) vide order dated October 18, 2022, and thereafter, the applicant approached the Supreme Court and withdrew his petition, the order of this court as passed on March 24, 2022 (on the first bail plea), has attained finality and now, in no stretch of imagination this court can make analysis of the facts of the case as desired by the applicant and consider the relief as prayed by him,” the trial court had said.

On October 18, 2022, the high court had upheld the dismissal of the first bail plea and said the city police’s allegations against him are prima facie true.

The high court had said that admittedly, the anti-CAA protests “metamorphosed into violent riots”, which “prima facie seemed to be orchestrated at the conspiratorial meetings” and the statements of the witnesses indicate Khalid’s “active involvement” in the protests.