On May 18, the Supreme Court asked for a response from the Delhi Police to Umar Khalid’s plea.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today said it would hear a plea on July 24 from former JNU student Umar Khalid seeking bail in a UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots here.
Delhi Police sought time to respond to the petition at the court hearing of AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh.
Lawyer Rajat Nair, appearing before the Delhi Police, urged the court to give him some time to file a counter-affidavit in the case.
“In a bail case, what should be filed. The man is in jail for two years and ten months,” senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, who represented Khalid, said.
Lawyer Rajat Nair said he is praying for a short time to file a defense in this case.
“The claim form is voluminous. It’s thousands of pages,” he said, asking the bank to give them some “reasonable time.”
“It should have been done today,” the bank noted, placing the case for hearing on July 24.
On May 18, the Supreme Court asked for a response from the Delhi Police to Umar Khalid’s plea.
In his appeal, Khalid challenged the Delhi High Court’s order denying him bail in the case.
On October 18 last year, the Supreme Court rejected his bail request, saying he was in constant contact with other co-defendants and that the allegations against him are prima facie true.
The Supreme Court had also said that the defendant’s actions prima facie qualified as a “terrorist act” under the UAPA anti-terror law.
Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and several others have been arrested under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of India’s penal code for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots in which 53 killed and more than 700 injured.
The violence had erupted during the protests against CAA and NRC.
Arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020, Umar Khalid had sought bail on the grounds that he had no criminal role in the violence nor any “conspiratorial connection” to any other suspect in the case.
Before the high court, the Delhi police had opposed Khalid’s bail request, saying his speech was “very calculated” and raised issues such as Babri Masjid, triple talaq, Kashmir, the alleged oppression of Muslims and citizenship (amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
