A Delhi court on Thursday directed the Tihar Jail Superintendent to take all the necessary steps to ensure safety and security of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid in judicial custody.

The order came after his counsel flagged the issue of his security inside the jail.

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Additional Session Judge Amitabh Rawat, of the Karkardooma court, said: “In view of the apprehensions, the Jail Superintendent is directed to take all necessary steps, within the rules, to ensure safety and security of the accused.”

The court had sent Khalid to judicial custody till October 22 in connection with a case related to the widespread violence which broke out in Delhi’s northeast area in February this year. He was produced before the court via the video conferencing at the end of his 10-days police custody.

Khalid was arrested on September 13 night under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and is accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy to cause communal unrest by inciting people protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.

The court also allowed him to take his spectacles along with him and meet his parents before being sent for the medical examination, prior to being taken to the jail. Before being sent to judicial custody, Khalid told the court that he has not signed any documents during his police remand.

On March 6, the FIR was registered against Khalid and Danish based on information provided by an informer to Crime Branch Sub-Inspector Arvind Kumar.

According to FIR number 59/2020, the Sub-Inspector said that riots are a premeditated conspiracy. “The conspiracy was hatched by Umar Khalid and two others associated with different organisations,” the FIR further stated.

Khalid gave provocative speeches at two different places and appealed to people to block the roads during US President Donald Trump’s visit, to spread propaganda at the international level about how minorities in India are being persecuted, the FIR added.

Khalid and his associates brought women and children to the road at several places in a bid to hatch conspiracy to incite riots, the Sub-Inspector alleged, adding that firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles, and stones were stored at homes in Kardampuri, Jafrabad, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, Shiv Vihar and nearby areas as part of the conspiracy.

Explaining the conspiracy, the complainant said that co-accused Danish was given the responsibility of gathering people from different places to take part in the violence. “On February 23, women and children were made to block the roads under the Jafrabad Metro Station to create tension amidst the neighborhood people in a bid to give rise to riots,” it added.

Besides this, Khalid is also named in the charge sheets filed in various cases of the riots. Communal violence broke out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after clashes between the citizenship law supporters and protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.