The Delhi High Court has denied bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima and others in Delhi riots larger conspiracy case on Tuesday, 2 September.
This particularly case refers to the FIR 59 wherein UAPA charges have been applied and it has been linked to an alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots.
A Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, which reserved its order on July 9 pronounced the verdict today and stated, "all appeals have been dismissed."
Meanwhile, a separate bench comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar denied bail to co-accused Tasleem Ahmed. “The appeal is dismissed,” the bench said.
This, even though, the judges had previously asked the Delhi police as to how long can an accused be kept in jail as it has been more than five years since the Delhi pogrom of 2020.
The bail petitions before Kaur's bench also include petitions by co-accused Athar Khan, Salim Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Meeran Haider and Shadab Ahmed who have been languishing in jail for over five years without a trial.
Their bail pleas have been heard by different benches from time to time and had Judge Kaur not pronounced the order, the arguments would have been heard the fourth time all over again as she is set to retire by end of this week.
Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and several others have been booked under 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.