The Delhi police on Thursday opposed in the Supreme Court bail pleas of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and others in the UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in Delhi, saying that they conspired to strike at the sovereignty and integrity of the country by a “regime change operation” executed under the guise of “peaceful protest”.

Arguing that the alleged offences involved a deliberate attempt to destabilise the state which warrant “jail and not bail”, the Delhi police, in an affidavit filed on Thursday, said it has collected ocular, documentary and technical evidence against the accused showing their intrinsic, deep-rooted and fervent complicity in engineering nationwide riots on communal lines.