Former JNU student Umar Khalid told the Delhi High Court on Thursday that mere membership of a WhatsApp group cannot make him criminally liable when nothing objectionable has been attributed to him.
Mr. Khalid, who is currently in judicial custody in connection with the 2020 north-east Delhi riots, said in his bail plea, “Is it illegal to be a member of a WhatsApp group unless you commit an illegality?”
“I [Mr. Khalid] am not an administrator, I am merely a member of the group,” senior advocate Trideep Pais, representing Khalid, told a Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar.
Mr. Pais added that the group admins were someone else and there was nothing else objectionable attributed to Mr. Khalid.
Mr. Khalid, arrested on September 13, 2020, is facing charges under the anti-terror law UAPA for allegedly being one of the ‘masterminds’ as well as instigators behind the north-east Delhi riots.
On March 24, 2022, the trial court had denied bail to Mr. Khalid stating that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that the accusations against him were prima facie true. He challenged the trial court’s order on the ground that he was not present when the violence broke out and no money was recovered from him. He also argued that the case is based on cooked-up statements.
During the hearing on Thursday, Mr. Pais said that out of the five WhatsApp groups cited by the prosecution, Mr. Khalid was a member of two groups and he had posted four messages in only one of the groups.
“The fact that I [Mr. Khalid] was part of two WhatsApp groups, out of five cited against me in which I remained silent, cannot make me criminally liable. I am not saying there was anything criminal in those groups,” Mr. Pais argued.
Amravati speech
Asked about the allegation levelled against Mr. Khalid, Mr. Pais replied on his behalf, “Silent whisper. There is no direct act attributed to me, except for the speech (in Amravati)”. Earlier, the High Court had remarked that the speech delivered by Mr. Khalid in Amravati in February 2020 was in “bad taste” but that did not make it a terrorist act.
Mr Pais added that Mr. Khalid has been in jail for about two years now since his arrest in September 2020.
The High Court posted the case for hearing further arguments of the public prosecutor on August 1.
Delhi Police has opposed Khalid’s bail plea saying that the role played by different entities, WhatsApp groups and individuals in pursuance of the conspiracy behind the 2020 riots would be clearly demonstrated by the trial court orders, rejecting bail to the other co-accused in the case.
