Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant bail to student activists, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in Delhi riots case. The top court however ordered the release of five other co-accused in the case citing the gravity of allegations against Umar and Sharjeel, legal news website Bar and Bench reported.
The Apex court said it was necessary to examine each appeal independently, adding that the record discloses that appellants are not on equal footing when it comes to culpability.
The accused – Khalid, Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd. Saleem Khan, and Shadab Ahmad – were booked under the stringent anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA)and provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the riots, which left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
“The hierarchy of participation requires the court to assess each application individually. Article 21 requires the state to justify prolonged pre trial custody,” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying.
Fatima, Haider, Rehman, Mohd. Saleem Khan, and Ahmad have been granted bail.
Khalid, a former JNU scholar has been in custody since September 13, 2020, while activist Imam has been imprisoned since January 28, 2020, weeks before the Delhi riots broke out.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria pronounced the verdict on multiple pleas of the accused in the case.
Communal riots broke out in parts of Northeast Delhi in February 2020, amid protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The riots, which lasted several days, led to several deaths, along with large-scale damage to homes, shops, and places of worship.
The top court had on 10 December reserved its verdict on separate pleas of the accused after hearing arguments from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for Delhi Police, and senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Singhvi, Siddhartha Dave, Salman Khurshid and Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the accused.
The Delhi Police opposed the bail pleas and said the riots were not spontaneous, but an “orchestrated, pre-planned and well-designed” attack on India’s sovereignty.
