New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria, however, granted bail to five others accused named in the case: Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan, and Shadab Ahmed. The Supreme Court said the prosecution had placed sufficient material on record pointing to their role in the alleged criminal conspiracy.
This court is satisfied that the prosecution material disclosed a prima facie allegation against the appellants Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. The statutory threshold stands attracted qua these appellants. This stage of proceedings does not justify their enlargement on bail,” the bench said. It also noted that the roles of Khalid and Imam stand on a qualitatively different footing when compared to the other accused in the case.
On December 10, the top court reserved its verdict on the separate pleas of the accused challenging the Delhi High Court’s September 2 ruling that refused relief to the accused in the conspiracy case. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the Delhi Police, while the accused were represented by senior advocates including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Singhvi, Siddhartha Dave, Salman Khurshid and Sidharth Luthra.
Opposing bail, the Delhi Police argued that the violence in northeast Delhi was not spontaneous but the result of a “pre-planned and well-designed” conspiracy aimed at undermining India’s sovereignty. During the proceedings, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for Ms. Fathima, had questioned what “public interest” would be served by the continued incarceration of a woman who had already spent nearly six years in custody as an undertrial.
Per contra, Additional Solicitor-General S.V. Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police, had argued that the scale of the violence, its degree of preparation, and the intent behind it left “no doubt” that the conspiracy extended far beyond civil demonstrations against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
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