New Delhi. The hearing on the bail plea of accused Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed and Mohammad Salim Khan in the North East Delhi riots case of 2020 was completed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. During this, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi presented arguments on behalf of the accused. Now the hearing on the bail plea of the accused in the Delhi riots case will continue on Wednesday.
The bail plea of the Delhi riot accused is being heard by the bench of Justice Arvind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria of the Supreme Court. Umar Khalid and other accused have approached the Supreme Court against the decision given by the Delhi High Court on September 2 in which they were clearly refused bail.
Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam’s arguments live in Supreme Court
– Sibal has further said that suppose the Justice rejected it. I will remain in jail for the next three years i.e. eight years without any trial. I am an academician. I am a person. I have not been held responsible for any direct actions. Sibal said I was ready to argue the charges and the trial judge said no, could the delay be because of me? It is not appropriate for ASG to do this. On this, ASG SV Raju said that there are many such instances where he said that he will not debate the charges until the investigation is completed. Don’t call me unfair. On this, Sibal argued that only he has this privilege. We don’t have (or speaking in the middle of a debate). Justice Kumar: Please don’t get emotional…
– When Justice Kumar asked Singhvi, is she a resident of Delhi? Does she live at the same address? So on this Singhvi said yes. In Seelampur… In other countries, freedom is ensured by anklets and GPS. What public interest are we serving by keeping him in jail? What will she do? Will she try to run away? Singhvi further argued that I am the only woman in jail in this case. The remaining women got bail in 2021. My case is very small. He was arrested in 2020.
– Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi (appearing on behalf of Gulfisha Fatima): He said in the argument that my client has been in jail for almost 6 years. A chargesheet has been filed on 16 September 2020, but as if the ritual of chargesheeting is going on, supplementary chargesheets are being filed continuously. Till now we have filed 4 supplementary and 1 main chargesheet. The arrest took place in 2020.
What is the matter?
In February 2020, there were riots in North East Delhi following clashes over the then proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). According to Delhi Police, 53 people died and hundreds were injured in these riots. The present case is related to the allegations that the accused had hatched a major conspiracy to instigate several riots. In this case, Delhi Police had registered an FIR under various provisions of IPC and UAPA. Many FIRs were registered against the accused of Delhi riots, due to which they filed many bail petitions in different courts. Most of the accused have been in judicial custody since 2020. Umar Khalid was arrested in September 2020 and charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly as well as several other offenses under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and has been in jail since then.
