HC to hear bail pleas of Umar, Sharjeel on Nov 25

New Delhi : The Delhi High Court will hear on November 25 the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid and student activist Sharjeel Imam in a UAPA case related to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the communal riots here in February 2020.

The two bail pleas, along with similar pleas by other co-accused in the case --’United Against Hate’ founder Khalid Saifi and others -- were on Monday listed for fresh hearing before a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur. The bench, however, did not assemble.

The cases were earlier before a bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait but the judge was recently transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court as its chief justice.

Khalid, Imam and several others have been booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence had erupted during the protests against the CAA and NRC.

Khalid, who was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020, has assailed a trial court order of May 28, which refused to grant him bail in the case.

Notice on his appeal was issued by the high court in July.

The pleas of Imam, Saifi and other accused were filed in 2022 and have been listed before different benches from time to time since then. Imam, in his appeal filed in 2022, has assailed a trial court order of April 11, 2022 which refused to grant him bail.