The Supreme Court of India adjourned the bail hearing of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar and activist Umar Khalid, who has been under arrest since September 2020 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged involvement in the larger conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots. The hearing was postponed by a bench comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Bela M. Trivedi, in response to an adjournment letter circulated by the petitioner's counsel.
Umar Khalid's plea challenges the Delhi High Court's decision to deny him bail last year. The case is part of the larger conspiracy related to the communal violence that erupted in the Indian capital in February 2020.
Khalid is one of the accused among 59 others, including activists from Pinjra Tod, Devangana Kalita, and Natasha Narwal, Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, and student activist Gulfisha Fatima. Others charge-sheeted in the case include former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider, and Shifa-Ur-Rehman, former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain, activist Khalid Saifi, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Mohd Salim Khan, and Athar Khan.
Khalid has been booked under several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Arms Act, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
The Delhi High Court had previously upheld the trial court's decision to deny Khalid bail, citing his alleged involvement in "conspiratorial meetings" leading up to the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. The court took a serious view of Khalid's speech given in Amaravati in February 2020, considering it an incitement of violence.
The Supreme Court had issued a notice in Khalid's plea in May this year. The case is now expected to be listed for further hearing on August 9, 2023, as the Delhi Police's counter-affidavit is yet to be officially received on record.
The 2020 Delhi riots resulted in more than 50 fatalities and over 700 injuries, stemming from clashes between anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and pro-CAA protesters in the national capital. Khalid and other activists have been implicated in the alleged larger conspiracy case surrounding the riots, making the bail hearing a matter of significant public interest.
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