Protest secular, police charge sheet communal: Former JNU student Umar Khalid

Calling it a “naked form of false implication”, senior advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid, told additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat that the charge sheet was a police’s “fertile imagination” and that the investigating officer was a scriptwriter who “literally wrote a novel”

Former JNU student Umar Khalid, arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), on Tuesday maintained before a city court that the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest was secular and termed the charge sheet against him “communal”.

Umar Khalid and several others have been booked under the UAPA, a stringent anti-terror law, for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to orchestrate the riots which had left at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured. (Vipin Kumar/HT Archive)

Calling it a “naked form of false implication”, senior advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid, told additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat that the charge sheet was a police’s “fertile imagination” and that the investigating officer was a scriptwriter who “literally wrote a novel”.

“Not a single witness spoke that women were exploited, that there was a secular cover etc. In fact, you will see a number of personalities who are educated, working in different fields, associated with [anti-]CAA [movement]. Luckily, they were not accused. In fact, the shoe is on the other side. The protest was secular, the charge sheet is communal,” Pais argued.

“You have a political person who speaks against the State and you want to frame him. It is a naked form of false implication. You (Delhi police) have fabricated a story to suit your narrative. This man is innocent. He has not done anything,” Pais submitted.

Pais accused the police cooking up statements and using convenient call detail records to arrest his client. “No recovery, not present in Delhi, no violence attributed to me (Khalid), no traces of funding,” Pais pointed out.

Khalid and several others have been booked under the UAPA, a stringent anti-terror law, for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to orchestrate the riots which had left at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

He also said that had the Delhi Police been a fair investigating agency, it would not have attributed the “tukde-tukde” phrase from some other case’s charge sheet to the present one.

Dismissing allegations that Khalid directed JNU student Sharjeel Imam and others to block the roads at Shaheen Bagh, the senior counsel argued that while the prosecution equated the blockades to a terror act, “it is not an offence and has been used by students, farmers and other agitations”.

Besides Khalid, JNU students Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar, former AAP councilor Tahir Hussain and several others have been booked for conspiracy in fuelling the riots.

Delhi Police had earlier said the bail plea had no merit and that it will demonstrate the prima facie case against him before the court by referring to the charge sheet filed in the case.