Three people accused in the 2020 Delhi riots case told the Supreme Court on Monday that they had been falsely implicated and sought parity with the other co-accused released on bail.
The trio — Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman and Mohd Saleem — have been in jail for over five years along with Gulfisha Fatima, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam after being booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and provisions of the erstwhile IPC for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the riots, which killed 53 people and injured over 700.
A bench of Justices Arvind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria had on Friday heard the bail plea of Fatima, Khalid and Imam and posted the matter for further hearing to November 6.
On Monday, senior advocate Siddharth Agarwal, representing Haider, pleaded that there was no reason why his client should not be granted bail “on parity” with co-accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal.
Agarwal submitted that Haider had no criminal antecedents, and mere participation in protests could not be the ground for invoking the stringent UAPA provisions and keeping a person in jail for over five years.
Agrawal pleaded that the accused should be granted bail as the trial would take considerable time to commence and conclude. Keeping him behind bars without a trial will infringe on his fundamental right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, the counsel argued.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Rehman, said there was no material to establish that his client was in any manner responsible for the violence for which he had been charged.
The senior counsel likened the trial against Rehman to that against the anti-Vietnam War protesters, known as “Trial of the Chicago 7”. He said no material had been produced by the prosecution to establish that Rehman had delivered any provocative speech during the anti-CAA protests.
All the accused have claimed that their prolonged incarceration was on account of multiple court adjournments and not due to any delaying tactics as attributed to them by Delhi police, which had held them responsible for the delay in the commencement of the trial.