[BREAKING] Delhi Riots: Delhi High Court to hear bail appeals of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid together

The Delhi High Court on Friday said that it would hear the bail appeals filed by Delhi Riots accused Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid together, on May 6..The Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar was hearing the appeal filed by Khalid against the lower court order which denied him bail in the Delhi Riots conspiracy case..At the outset of the hearing, the Court noted that the challenge to Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises the offence of Sedition, was pending before the Supreme Court."The matter challenging section 124A is before the Supreme Court. So it will have bearing on this matter as well," Justice Bhatnagar said.The Bench thus proposed to list the matter after May 5, when the apex court will hear the issue..At this point, Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, appearing for Imam, pointed out that the appeal filed by his client against denial of bail was also listed before the Court and was on the same issue. Justice Mridul responded,"Okay, you want us to hear these together? Mr Prasad I expect that you will accept the notice in this matter as well?"Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad responded in the affirmative..The Court issued notice in Imam's plea and said,"In Mr Umar Khalid's matter, renotify for further arguments on behalf of applicant on May 6th...We will deal with these at one go."The Bench also told Senior Advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid, that it was keen to hear the speech delivered by his client at Amravati, since the chargesheet stems from the same.Mir then mentioned Imam's bail application in the case related to his allegedly inflammatory speeches at Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University. The Bench responded,"We will have it together. We will list it on May 6.".On the request of the Court, Umar Khalid had recently submitted materials and case laws explaining the meaning of the words 'krantikari' and 'inquilab' used by him in his speeches delivered by him prior to the Delhi Riots.During the hearing of Khalid's bail plea on Wednesday, the Bench had questioned what Khalid meant when he used the words "inquilab" and "krantikari" in the speech that he delivered at Amravati. The Court had also observed that though Khalid's speech might sound innocuous in isolation, it left enough room for people to interpret it as a bugle call for something to follow..Khalid was denied bail by the Karkardooma Court on March 24. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat found he was part of the WhatsApp groups created for specific objects. His acts or presence throughout the period beginning from the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in December 2019 till the riots of February 2020 riots had to read in a piecemeal manner, the Court had held.The Delhi Police had arrested Khalid in the case on September 13, 2020 and chargesheeted him on November 22 the same year under various sections of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code..In his petition, Imam has challenged the order dated April 11 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge at Karkardooma Courts which dismissed his bail plea.The petition argued that Imam was arrested by the investigating agency as part of a targeted campaign to have multiple FIRs and investigations against him at the same time..Sharjeel Imam moves Delhi High Court challenging rejection of bail in Delhi riots conspiracy case

[BREAKING] Delhi Riots: Delhi High Court to hear bail appeals of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid together

Prashant Jha

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