On August 9, the Supreme Court of India adjourned the hearing of the bail application for Umar Khalid, accused in the larger conspiracy case related to Delhi Riots 2020, after Justice PK Mishra recused from the hearing. The application was listed before the court’s Division Bench, comprising Justices AS Bopanna and PK Mishra
“This will come before some other bench. There is some difficulty on part of my brother,” Justice Bopanna said.
The court further directed that the case is placed before another bench on August 17. The accused, Umar Khalid, is being represented by Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Chander Uday Singh, whereas Advocate Rajat Nair represented the Delhi Police. The court was considering Umar Khalid’s Special Leave Petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s decision to refuse bail to him.
The case against Umar Khalid has been registered under Sections 3 & 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act (PDPP) Act, Sections 25 & 27 of the Arms Act, Sections 13, 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Sections 120B, 124A, 302, 207, 353, 186, 212, 395, 427, 435, 436, 452, 454, 109, 114, 147, 148, 149, 153A & 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Umar Khalid has been charge-sheeted along with 19 other accused, including former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain, former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan, Pinjra Tod members Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita. The police have further booked Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi, Safoora Zargar, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd Saleem Khan, Athar Khan, Faizan Khan, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha, Suleman Siddiqui and Amanullah.
Notably, on August 5, a Delhi Court also ordered day-to-day hearings on framing of charges against persons accused in the larger conspiracy case concerning Delhi Riots 2020. The court listed the matter for arguments on point of charge on September 11 and ordered that the SPP would begin the arguments on the stipulated date. The court further directed all accused persons to appear before the court physically on September 11. The court also directed the IO to be present before the court on the date.
“The compliance under Section 207 Cr.P.C qua all the chargesheeted accused persons is complete. Hence, list the matter for arguments on the point of charge on 11.09.2023 onwards for day to day hearing. Ld. Special Public Prosecutor shall begin the arguments on 11.09.2023,” the court said.
The Delhi Police has filed four chargesheets in the case, which is being probed by the special cell. The police filed the first chargesheet on September 16, 2020. The supplementary chargesheets were filed on November 22, 2020, February 24, 2021, and March 2, 2022.
Delhi High Court Rejects Umar Khalid’s Bail
On October 18, 2022, the Delhi High Court upheld the trial court’s decision to refuse Umar Khalid’s bail plea. The high court further expressed, for the purpose of Umar Khalid’s bail application, that the “inescapable conclusion” was that the allegations against the accused were “prima facie true.” Thus, the high court rejected Umar Khalid’s bail application.
The Delhi High Court said that prima facie the matter appears to be of a premeditated conspiracy for causing disruptive chakka-jam and pre-planned protests at different planned sites in Delhi, which was engineered to escalate to confrontational chakka-jam and incitement to violence and culminate in riots in natural course.
“The protest planned was “not a typical protest” normal in political culture or democracy but one far more destructive and injurious geared towards extremely grave consequences. Thus, as per the pre-meditated plan there was an intentional blocking of roads to cause inconvenience and disruption of the essential services to the life of community residing in North-East Delhi, creating thereby panic and an alarming sense of insecurity,” the Delhi High Court observed.
“The attack on police personnel by women protesters in front only followed by other ordinary people and engulfing the area into a riot is the epitome of such pre- mediated plan and as such the same would prima facie be covered by the definition of ‘terrorist act’,” the court further observed.
“Further, the weapons used, the manner of attack and the resultant deaths destruction caused indicates that it was pre-planned. Acts which threaten the unity and integrity of India and cause friction in communal harmony and creates terror in any section of the people, by disturbing the social-fabric is also a priori a terrorist act,” the court further said.
The Delhi High Court noted that Umar Khalid’s name find recurring mention from the beginning of the conspiracy to the culmination of the riots. The court notes that he was a member of a WhatsApp group of Muslim students of JNU. The court further noted that there had been a flurry of calls that happened after riots between Umar Khalid and other co-accused.
The court said that the cumulative statements of the protected witnesses indicate that Umar Khalid was actively involved in the protests engineering against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The court noted that these protests turned into violent riots in February 2020. which began by “choking public roads, then violently and designedly attacking policemen and random members of the public.” The court further noted that firearms, acid bottles, stones and other weapons were used in the violent riots.
“These protests & riots prima-facie seem to be orchestrated at the conspiratorial meetings held from December, 2019 till February, 2020,” the court said.
