A Delhi court on Monday sent former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, who was arrested late on Sunday under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, to police custody for 10 days in a case related to the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February.
Mr. Khalid was produced before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat through video conferencing.
Police had sought his custody for 10 days saying they wanted to confront him with documents running into 11 lakh pages.
Mr. Khalid was arrested on Sunday night over allegations of conspiracy in Delhi riots. His counsel opposed the remand application saying he was not in Delhi during February 23-26, when the riots took place.
In the FIR, the police has claimed that the communal violence was a “premeditated conspiracy” which was allegedly hatched by Khalid and two others. Mr. Khalid has also been booked for the offences of sedition, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting.
According to the FIR, Mr. Khalid had allegedly given provocative speeches at two different places and appealed to the citizens to come out on streets and block the roads during the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to spread propaganda at international level about how minorities in India are being tortured.
In this conspiracy, firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones were collected at numerous homes, FIR claimed.
A police officer said at one of the occasions Mr. Khalid had met with Tahir Hussain, ex-AAP councillor, during the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh. He also held a meeting with various group members in Seelampur to carve out a plan on how the anti-CAA protest could be intensified.
In March, Delhi police crime branch registered a case of rioting on the complaint of a Delhi police sub-inspector who mentioned the speeches of Mr. Khalid where he had purportedly provoked people to block roads during President Trump’s visit.
Co-accused Danish was allegedly given the responsibility to gather people from two different places to take part in the riots, police alleged.
Women and children were made to block the roads under the Jafrabad metro station on February 23 to create tension among people in the neighbourhood, the FIR said.
Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 leaving at least 53 people dead.
