By Betwa Sharma
New Delhi: Four years and three months after he was arrested in connection with the Delhi riots, Umar Khalid made his bail plea for a second time before the Delhi High Court on 6 December 2024, arguing on the grounds of the “time spent” jailed without trial as well as parity.
The parity that his lawyer, senior advocate Trideep Pais, spoke of was the bail the high court granted to Khalid’s co-accused in the Delhi riots conspiracy case in June 2021— Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Asif Iqbal Tanha, student activists at the time of the protests—and the trial court gave to Ishrat Jahan, a lawyer and former Congress Party councillor, in March 2022.
The Delhi police say the so-called “larger conspiracy case”, one of 752 cases registered in connection with the Delhi riot, is about prosecuting those who planned the communal violence that consumed northeast Delhi from 23 February 2020 to 25 February 2020.
Of the 53 people killed in the riot, three-quarters were Muslim. Of the 18 people charged in the case, 16 are Muslim.
Close to five years after it was registered on 6 March 2020, the case is currently at the stage of arguments on charge, which could take time since the lawyers of 18 accused will make arguments.
The trial commences once arguments are framed.
Except for a week when he was allowed to leave jail to attend his sister’s wedding in December 2022, Khalid, 37, a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, has been jailed since 13 September 2020.
‘Bail Is The Rule’
Khalid, a political activist, is a vocal critic of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, and co-founded the group United Against Hate to respond to escalating crimes against minorities and lynchings of Muslims.
“Today, I’m at four years and three months,” Pais told the division judge bench of Justices Naveen Chawla and Shalinder Kaur on Friday.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.
