Delhi riots | Court to pass order on Umar Khalid's interim bail plea on December 12

Umar Khalid has moved the plea seeking two-week interim bail for his sister’s marriage

Published - December 07, 2022 06:07 pm IST - New Delhi

Umar Khalid. File

Umar Khalid. File | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

A Delhi court on December 7 reserved its verdict on an interim bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid who is an accused in a 2020 northeast Delhi riots case.

Mr. Khalid has moved the plea seeking two-week interim bail for his sister’s marriage.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat will pass the order on December 12. During the hearing, counsel for Mr. Khalid cited various judgments where the accused booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) were granted interim bail.

However, opposing the bail plea, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad said that most of the judgments which were relied upon were not relevant as they were not for the grant of interim bail, rather they were for the grant of custody parole or interim custody bail because of the peculiar circumstances involved. “The cases relied upon where interim bail was granted were [because of] very exceptional circumstances and such circumstances do not exist here,” he said.

Mr. Prasad said Asif Iqbal Tanha (an accused under UAPA) was granted interim custody bail for appearing in an exam, while Natasha Narwal (another UAPA accused) was granted interim bail on the grounds that she was the only person to perform the last rites of her father. He further opposed the bail plea on the ground that Mr. Khalid’s application had mentioned three dates for the marriage ceremony, i.e, from December 26-28, but the bail was sought for 14 days, from December 20 to January 3. “There is thus no ground for grant of interim bail… With regards to the admitted position in the application, an extraordinary demand has been raised…” the Special Public Prosecutor said.

Earlier, the Delhi Police had opposed Mr. Khalid’s bail plea, saying he was facing serious charges under the UAPA and that he was likely to spread misinformation by use of social media during his interim bail period, which could cause unrest in society. Mr. Khalid was booked under the anti-terror law UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being a mastermind of the February 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured. The violence had erupted during the protests against CAA and NRC.

Mr. Khalid was arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.