Court seeks police reply on bail pleas of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid

A Delhi court on Thursday sought the city police’s reply on the bail plea of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid, charged under stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly conspiring to orchestrate the north-east Delhi riots last year

A Delhi court on Thursday sought the city police’s reply on the bail plea of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid, charged under stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly conspiring to orchestrate the north-east Delhi riots last year.

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Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat issued notice on the plea while also extending the custody of Khalid and the other accused till July 30, in the main conspiracy case related to the riots.

Besides Khalid, Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia coordination committee members Safoora Zargar, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and JNU student Sharjeel Imam, among others, have also been booked under the UAPA in the case.

Recently, the Delhi high court granted bail to Tanha, Narwal and Kalita in the case, saying the state “blurred the line between the right to protest and terrorist activity in its anxiety to suppress dissent”.

Communal riots had broken out in the city last year claiming 53 lives and leaving over 400 injured.

Sharjeel Imam, arrested for his allegedly inflammatory speeches during the protests against the Citizen (Amendment) Act (CAA), also moved his bail plea on Thursday, which will be heard on August 6.

The court also issued notice on this plea, which alleged that police have created a “narrative of religious extremism” around him by conflating purported discussion of issues affecting a particular religious community that needed to be highlighted.

“The allegations against the applicant (Imam) contain an imaginary concoction of the state of mind of the applicant that bears no connection, direct or indirect, with the material collected as part of the investigation in the FIR.

Imam’s counsel Tanveer Ahmed Mir further alleged that while making such “wild aspersions”, the prosecution has absurdly taken recourse to the Imam’s MPhil thesis and his several academic expressions found in leading digital media platforms.

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