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The Supreme Court is hearing the bail pleas filed by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed and Mohd Saleem Khan in the larger conspiracy case in relation to the 2020 North East Delhi riots.
A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria is hearing the matter.
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 UAPA.
Most of the accused were booked in multiple FIRs, leading to multiple bail petitions before different courts. Most have been in custody since 2020.
Khalid was arrested in September 2020 and charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly, as well as several other offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
He has been in jail since then.
The trial court had first denied him bail in March 2022. He then approached the High Court, which also denied him relief in October 2022, prompting him to file an appeal before the top court.
In May 2023, the Supreme Court sought the response of the Delhi Police in the matter. His plea before the top court was then adjourned 14 times.
On February 14, 2024, he withdrew his bail plea from the Supreme Court, citing a change in circumstances.
On May 28, the trial court rejected his second bail petition. An appeal against the same was dismissed by the Delhi High Court on September 2, prompting the present plea before the apex court.
Imam too was booked in multiple FIRs across several States, mostly under sedition and UAPA charges.
In the case registered over speeches he gave at Jamia Milia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University, he was granted bail by the Delhi High Court last year. In the sedition cases registered in Aligarh and Guwahati, he was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in 2021 and the Gauhati High Court in 2020, respectively. He was also booked in FIRs in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
The Court had earlier pulled up the Delhi Police for failing to file its response to the bail pleas.
Subsequently, the Delhi Police filed a 389-page affidavit detailing why the accused should not be granted bail.
The Delhi Police claimed irrefutable documentary as well as technical evidence that pointed to a conspiracy for a "regime-change operation" and plans to incite nationwide riots on communal lines and kill non-Muslims.
During the hearing of the case on November 20, the Delhi Police told the top court that the accused are anti-nationals who tried to overthrow the regime through violence.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju told the Court that even foreign newspapers carry sympathetic stories about the accused persons without understanding that they are anti-national and not intellectuals.
He claimed that the entire protest by the accused persons against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was aimed at bringing about a change in regime and the riots that followed led to the death of 53 persons including an officer of Intelligence Bureau (IB).
Raju also claimed that it was done in a manner that it coincided with the visit of US President Donald Trump. When intellectuals become terrorists, they are far more dangerous than ground level terrorists, the ASG argued.
Live updates from today's hearing here.