2020 Delhi Riots Case: Former JNU Student Leader Umar Khalid’s Bail Application Rejected

New Delhi: Delhi’s Karkardooma Court on Tuesday rejected former JNU student leader Umar Khalid’s bail in the 2020 Delhi riots case.

This was his second bail application in the case filed after withdrawing his plea from the Supreme Court in February. He had sought regular bail on grounds of delay and parity with other accused.

Khalid, who has been in custody since September 2020 under UAPA, has been accused by Delhi Police of planning protests in 2020 at 23 places that led to riots.

Special Judge Sameer Bajpai had reserved the order on his bail application on May 13.

The special public prosecutor of Delhi Police opposed the bail plea calling it “frivolous and baseless”.

Senior Advocate Tridib Pais, Khalid’s counsel had claimed that no terror allegations were levelled against Khalid in the chargesheet filed by Delhi Police and his name was merely repeated in the document.

Khalid’s counsel argued that the former student leader was sharing the correct narrative. He questioned, “Is sharing messages a criminal or terror act?” He also claimed that a vicious media trial was taking place against Khalid and referred to statements from various news anchors.

Pais argued that no terror case was made out against Khalid. He also noted that the High Court granted bail to other accused persons – Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and Asif Iqbal Tanha, who had similar roles as Khalid.

Delhi Police opposed the bail and said that Khalid’s chats revealed a habit of creating narratives on media and social media to influence bail hearings, ANI reported.