2020 Delhi riots: SC adjourns hearing of Umar Khalid's bail plea for 4 weeks

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned for four weeks the hearing of the bail plea filed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid in a UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the North-East Delhi riots in February 2020.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela Trivedi adjourned the hearing saying the matter requires a detailed hearing and asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Khalid, to file documents in the case.

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The bench told Sibal, "List the case after four weeks... In this matter, we will have to go document-by-document. You have to show us what evidence is available and how it does not match with the charges against you."

Sibal said certain provisions of the UAPA, including provisions concerning terrorism, raising funds for terrorist act and conspiracy did not apply in the case.

Khalid had approached the top court challenging an October 2022 Delhi High Court verdict that had denied bail to him.

Khalid, arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020, in the High Court had sought bail on grounds that he neither had any "criminal role" in the violence in the city's North-East area nor any "conspiratorial connect" with any other accused in the case. The Delhi police had opposed the bail plea of Khalid.

He had approached the High Court challenging the dismissal of his bail application by the trial court in March 2022.

He was charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly as well as several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Besides Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, activist Khalid Saifi, JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and several others were booked under the stringent law in the case.

The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

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