New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the response of the Delhi Police on a bail plea moved by the President of the Alumni Association of Jamia Millia Islamia (AAJMI) Shifa-ur-Rehman, who is an accused in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case connected to the alleged larger conspiracy case behind 2020 Delhi riots.
Issuing notice in the matter, a bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal, also transferred the matter to another bench that is dealing with the larger conspiracy case matter which includes activists Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid.
Now, Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar will hear the matter in July.
On April 7, a lower court denied bail to Rehman, also a member of the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), who was arrested and charge-sheeted for his alleged involvement in the riots.
Dismissing the bail plea, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat noted the allegations against the accused are prima facie true.
Besides, Shifa-ur-Rehman, the charge sheet filed by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police names former AAP councilor Tahir Hussain, Safoora Zargar, Gulfisha Khatoon, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Ishrat Jahan, Meeran Haidar, Shadab Ahamd, Talsim Ahmad, Saleem Malik, Mohammed Salim Khan and Athar Khan in relation with the larger conspiracy case.
The supplementary charge sheet contains the names of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Mohammed Pervez Ahmad, Mohammed Ilyas, Danish, and Faizal Khan.
In the charge sheet, the police claimed that five persons — Tahir Hussain, former councilor Ishrat Jahan, student Meeran Haider, activist Khalid Saifi, and Shifa-ur-Rehman — received Rs 1.61 crore as cash or bank transaction, out of which Rs 1.48 crore was used to manage the protest sites and execute the conspiracy of riots.
Imam and Khalid are facing charges in connection with the inflammatory speeches which are allegedly fuelled the violence, as per the police.
The riots broke out in the national capital in February 2020 as clashes between the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and pro-CAA protesters took a violent turn. The mayhem, which coincided with the then US President Donald Trump’s maiden trip to India, saw more than 50 people lose their lives while over 700 were injured.
This article first appeared on freepressjournal.in
