The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict in the bail petitions filed by six accused - Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed and Mohd Saleem Khan - in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case.
A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria concluded the hearing on Wednesday.During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, appearing for Delhi Police, said that acts of one conspirator can be be attributed to others."Sharjeel Imam’s speeches can be attributed to Umar Khalid. Sharjeel Imam’s case will be considered as evidence against the others," he said.
The Court questioned the Delhi Police for placing reliance on an unrelated 2016 FIR concerning "tukde tukde" slogans allegedly raised at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)."Why are you showing prior FIR for riots that happened in 2020? What has it got to do with it?," the Bench asked.It eventually reserved its verdict in the matter and also said that it will take a decision in the case before the Court closes for winter break on December 19.Hence, it asked the parties to compile and submit all relevant documents by December 18.
"Advocates appearing for both the sides having argued for considerable length of time and have produced authorities, memos, short synopsis, long synopsis, written arguments, charts, list of dates, list of events, etc as and when oral arguments were tendered. For the proposes of convenience, it was taken on record and now we call upon the advocates from amongst them shall entrust the said documents to be collated, collected and compiled in one single convenience compilation.
The same would also equally apply to the counsel appearing for the respondents who shall also compile the same and file in the court. The said exercise shall be undertaken and completed by December 18 so that before vacations, we can take a decision," the Bench said.
Khalid and others moved the top court against the Delhi High Court's September 2 order denying them bail. The top court had issued notice to the police on September 22.
The riots occurred in February 2020 following clashes over the then-proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). As per the Delhi Police, the riots caused the death of 53 persons and injured hundreds.The present case pertains to allegations that the accused had hatched a larger conspiracy to cause multiple riots. The FIR in this case was registered by a Special Cell of the Delhi Police under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Khalid was arrested in September 2020 and charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly as well as several other offences under UAPA.He has been in jail since then.
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