The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave Delhi police time till July 24 to respond to the bail plea by former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student and activist Umar Khalid accused of alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020North-East Delhi riots.
A bench of Justice A S Bopanna and Justice M M Sundresh adjourned the hearing after advocate Rajat Nair appearing for Delhi Police sought time to file response on Khalid’s bail plea.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the bench that Umar Khalid has been inside the jail for over two years and eleven months now. Khalid was arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA). Sibal appeared for Umar Khalid.
Advocate Rajat Nair told the bench that the investigating agency needs some reasonable time to file a reply, pointing out that the chargesheet runs into thousands of pages.
Khalid had approached the top court challenging an October 2022 Delhi High Court order denying bail to him.
Khalid had told the High Court that he neither had any “criminal role” in the violence in the 2020 Delhi riots nor any “conspiratorial connect” with any other accused in the case. The Delhi police had opposed the bail plea of Khalid.
Khalid had approached the High Court challenging the dismissal of his bail application by the trial court in March 2022.
He was charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly as well as several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Besides Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, activist Khalid Saifi, JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and several others were booked under the stringent law in the case.
The violence had erupted during the protests against CAA and NRC and had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.