Delhi: A Delhi court today deferred order in Umar Khalid’s bail plea for the third time. The bail plea is related to the larger conspiracy case linked to the Delhi riots. Umar Khalid has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The order will now be pronounced tomorrow at 12 PM.
Earlier, the court had deferred orders twice in Khalid’s bail application. On Monday, 21st March, the court had reserved orders Wednesday, 23 March. Before that, 14 March, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Delhi’s Karkardooma Court had reserved the order for Monday, saying that the defence had not filed their written submissions in the matter.
Umar Khalid, a former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and an activist, was arrested on 14 September 2020 in connection with the case.
Opposing the UAPA charges in the court, Khalid’s counsel had reportedly said that his speech in Amravati was about Gandhi, harmony, and the Constitution, which was not a crime. On the other hand, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad opposed Khalid’s plea and argued that the permission for the Amravati programme was rejected on 11 February 2020 by the Maharashtra Police as then US President Donald Trump was visiting India on the same day.
As protests against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) intensified in the national capital and across the country, communal clashes had taken over northeast Delhi in February 2020. According to reports, 53 people were killed in the violence, while hundreds were injured, and property worth crores was destroyed in the violence.
The police have accused 18 people in this conspiracy case. Only six have managed to get bail so far- Ishrat Jahan, Faizan Khan, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita. Five of them had to go up to the Delhi High Court before they were granted any relief, while Ishrat Jahan was granted bail by the same sessions court.
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