The Delhi High Court rejects bail requests made by activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in larger conspiracy case tied to the February 2020 Delhi riots. The court decided that the accused stay in custody while the trial proceeds. “All appeals are dismissed,” Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur said, as reported by Bar and Bench.
Delhi High Court rejects bails request by Umar Khalid
The Delhi High Court also rejected the bail applications of Gulfisha Fatima, United Against Hate (UAH) founder Khalid Saifi, Athar Khan, Mohd Saleem, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Meeran Haider, and Shadaab Ahmed. In a separate ruling, another bench denied the plea of Tasleem Ahmed, another accused in the same case.
Why did activists seek bail?
The accused in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy argued that their long detention without charges amounted to a denial of justice. Some bail applications had been pending since 2022. They claimed that the delay in the trial was the main reason for granting them bail.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra expressed her disagreement with the Delhi HC decision on X (formerly Twitter), and said “Delhi HC denies bail to Umar Khalid & 6 others after 5 years of incarceration, where nothing has even moved in the case. We have to fight in SC now.”
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