A Delhi court on Thursday denied bail to former JNU student Umar Khalid in connection with a case alleging a larger conspiracy in the Delhi riots of 2020. Additional sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat pronounced the order after the verdict was deferred several times earlier this month. The Karkardooma court had reserved the order on March 3. Then the order was to be pronounced on March 14 but got deferred for non-filing of written arguments by the lawyer of Umar Khalid. Then the matter was deferred till March 23 following the submission of additional notes by the Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad who contested that there are multiple chats and other evidence against Umar Khalid.
On a specific question asked by the court on Umar Khalid's speech at Amaravati in February 2020, the SSP submitted that the permission for his programme was rejected on February 11 by the Maharashtra Police. On February 12, the Welfare Party of India filed another application for the event mentioning six dignitaries but Umar Khalid's name was not there.
Umar Khalid was arrested on September 13 in 2020 under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Senior advocate Triddeo Pais appearing for Umar Khalid said the entire chargesheet against Umar Khalid is a fabrication and based on truncated video clips of Umar Khalid's speech shown by news channels.
During the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the northeastern part of Delhi witnessed massive clashes and violence in February 2020 in which 53 people were killed and over 700 were injured.