A Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order on the bail applications of student activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 Delhi riots, with the verdict likely to be pronounced later in the day.
Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai reserved the order after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and the defence. The court is expected to pass the order in the evening.
Khalid and Imam sought bail on the ground that their continued incarceration without the commencement of trial violated their fundamental right to liberty.
Khalid's plea argued that although the Supreme Court had earlier rejected his bail application, subsequent judicial developments amounted to a "change in circumstances." The plea referred to the apex court's observations made in May in another case, where it reiterated that "bail is the rule" even under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The fresh bail applications were filed after the Supreme Court refused them bail in the UAPA case on January 5.
In his application, Imam said there had been no "significant development" in the proceedings even six months after the Supreme Court judgment denying him bail and that he has been in custody for nearly six years without trial.
The plea said charges were yet to be framed despite the prolonged incarceration of the two activists.
Khalid also cited the delay in trial, submitting that he has spent nearly six years in custody without charges being framed. His application stated that the trial was unlikely to begin in the near future given the large number of accused, witnesses and documents relied upon by the prosecution.
The plea further referred to the Supreme Court's observations in its May 18 order in a terror-related case, where a two-judge bench, while granting bail to an accused, criticised the January 5 verdict and stressed that anti-terror laws should not become a tool for indefinite detention.
Khalid argued that a "change in circumstances" has made the present bail plea maintainable despite rejection of his earlier application by the apex court.
The application also relied on Supreme Court judgments, including 'Union of India versus K A Najeeb' and 'Vernon Gonsalves versus State of Maharashtra', to contend that statutory restrictions on bail under the UAPA cannot override constitutional protections where a trial is unlikely to conclude within a reasonable time.
On January 5, the Supreme Court denied bail to Khalid and Imam in the larger conspiracy case while granting relief to co-accused Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria had then observed that there was a prima facie case against Khalid and Imam under the UAPA and held that all accused could not be treated equally in view of the "hierarchy of participation."
Khalid, Imam and several others were booked under the UAPA and provisions of the IPC for allegedly being part of a larger conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi.
The violence erupted during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
