Delhi Riots: Police opposes bail plea of JNU student activist Umar Khalid, says it's meritless

The Delhi Police on Tuesday filed its reply in a bail plea moved by former JNU student Umar Khalid arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the north-east Delhi Violence matter.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat adjourned the hearing for August 7 for detailed arguments. The Delhi Police in its reply opposed the bail plea stating that the petition is "meritless".

It stated, "The application filled by the applicant, Umar Khalid, has no merit as would be revealed and demonstrated before this Court by reference to the charge-sheet filed before this Court and as such the prosecution does not seek to file a detailed reply to the present application."

Khalid was arrested in September 13, 2020 by the special cell of Delhi Police in north-east Delhi riots case where charges under the anti-terror law UAPA have been invoked against several accused.

The Police submitted that the present case pertains to a larger conspiracy that was registered on March 6, 2020. In total 21 accused persons have been arrested in the case till date, out of which charge sheet qua 18 accused persons has been Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is still in progress.

Besides Umar Khalid, other students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita from JNU, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, Jamia's Asif Iqbal Tanha, former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain, and several others, have also been booked under the UAPA.

The Delhi High Court in its recent judgement had granted bail to Asif, Devangna and Natasha Narwal in the same case. Delhi HC had given very strong observations against prosecution in the matter. Later Delhi Police had moved the Supreme Court challenging that order.

More than 750 cases were registered over the northeast Delhi violence, in which at least 53 people were killed and several others were injured. So far, over 250 chargesheets have been filed in the riots related cases in which many accused have been charge-sheeted.