Sharjeel Imam, accused in Delhi riots case, gets 7-day interim bail to attend cousin's wedding

Sharjeel Imam was arrested in January 2020, and booked under the UAPA on charges that he was a key intellectual architects behind the Delhi riots conspiracy.

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted interim bail from October 4 to October 10 to student activist Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 North-East Delhi riots larger conspiracy case to allow him to attend his cousin’s wedding.

Sharjeel Imam has been in jail for nearly six years now in connection with a Delhi riots case. (HT Photos )

The temporary release was granted by additional sessions judge Sameer Bajpai of the Karkardooma Courts in connection with a conspiracy case stemming from the 2020 Delhi riots. A copy of the written order has not yet been released.

Imam was arrested by the Delhi Police on January 28, 2020, and booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on charges that he was one of the key intellectual architects behind the entire conspiracy, who worked in tandem with the other co-conspirators, which escalated into large-scale communal violence during the February 2020 Delhi riots.

The relief comes a day after the Delhi high court adjourned the regular bail petitions of Imam and co-accused Umar Khalid to September 30.

The Delhi Police has strongly opposed their bail in the High Court, calling them the "masterminds" of the violence. In an affidavit filed last month, police argued that their bail pleas were legally untenable, pointing out that the Supreme Court had previously categorized their roles as part of a "command authority," distinguishing them from other co-accused.

To be sure, ASJ Bajpai rejected on July 5 fresh bail applications filed by Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid in the larger conspiracy case, pointing that there were no grounds to entertain the pleas in view of the Supreme Court’s January 5 order refusing bail to both accused and laying down specific conditions under which they could revive their pleas.

Sharjeel and Umar Khalid had pointed to a May 18 judgment by a Supreme Court bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan granting bail to Syed Iftikhar Andrabi in a narco-terror case investigated by the National Investigation Agency. In this order, the bench expressed “serious reservations” about the reasoning adopted in the January 5 ruling.

In his July order, ASJ Bajpai observed the divergence of opinion between the two Supreme Court verdicts and stressed that the issue had already been referred to a larger bench of the apex court. Until that issue is settled, the trial court said, it could not consider the fresh applications on any ground.