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Informist, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Tuesday denied bail to student activists Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, and others in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case. A division bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur said, "All appeals are dismissed." A detailed order is awaited. The court had reserved its verdict in July. The matter saw several bench changes over the years.

 

In February 2020, northeast Delhi, where a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in 2019, was underway for several months, erupted in violence that left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Later, the Delhi Police arrested the student activists and claimed that they were involved in a conspiracy to foment riots in the region between Feb. 23 and Feb. 25, 2020. The police booked the activists under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, The Arms Act, 1959, and The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

 

The petitioners had argued that they have already spent nearly five years in custody and the slow pace of the trial makes prolonged incarceration unjustifiable. They said they were entitled to be released on bail on grounds of parity with co-accused Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and Asif Iqbal Tanha, who were granted bail by the court in 2021.

 

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta and Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad, appearing for the Delhi Police, had opposed the bail plea and argued that the riots were not spontaneous but a planned and orchestrated conspiracy carried out on a particular date at a particular time and place to divide the country on religious lines and embarrass it globally. They had requested the court not to treat the case as one of mere riots, but as one where the accused had conspired to cause a communal divide, destabilise India's unity, and disrupt law and order. They said prolonged incarceration could not be grounds for release on bail in such a case.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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