JNU ex-student Umar Khalid denied bail in 2020 Delhi riots case

A Delhi court on Thursday denied bail to former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid in a case of larger conspiracy in connection with Delhi riots during February 2020, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe that the accusations against him were prima facie true.

IMAGE: Umar Khalid. Photograph: ANI Photo.

Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat had reserved the order on March 3 after hearing arguments from the counsel appearing for Khalid and the prosecution.

The court rejected defence counsel's contention that Khalid was a researcher and that his bent of mind can be assessed from his doctoral thesis on welfare aspects of Adivasis of Jharkhand and other writings, saying it was not a relevant consideration while deciding the bail application.

“If the bent of mind is to be assessed in this manner, then the co-­accused Sharjeel Imam has written thesis on riots but any thesis or research work, by itself, done by any accused cannot be a ground for assessing mens rea or his bent of mind,” the judge said.

A bail application must be decided on facts presented in charge­sheet, he said.

“Thus, on the perusal of the charge­sheet and accompanying documents, for the limited purpose of the bail, I am of the opinion that allegations against the accused Umar Khalid are prima facie true,” the judge said.

Khalid's further contention that he was not present in Delhi during the time of riots, was also rejected by the court, which said that in a case of a conspiracy, it is not necessary that every accused should be present at the spot.

“It is also important to highlight that in a conspiracy, various continuous acts are committed by different accused persons. One act cannot be read in isolation. At times, if read by itself, a particular act or an activity may appear innocuous, but if it is a part of chain of events constituting a conspiracy, then all the events must be read together,” the judge said.

The court noted from the charge sheet which claimed that there was a premeditated conspiracy of the disruptive chakka­jam and a pre-planned protest at 23 different planned sites in Delhi which was to escalate to confrontational chakka­jam and incitement to violence and resulting in riots.

It said that there was intentional blocking of roads to cause inconvenience and to cause disruption of the essential services to the life of community residing in north-east Delhi, causing violence with various means and then leading to February riots.

“The target was to block roads at mixed population areas and encircle the entire area completely stopping the entry and exit of citizens living there and then creating panic to attack on police personnel by women protesters in front only followed by other ordinary people and engulfing the area into a riots and the same would be covered by the definition of terrorist act,” the court noted.

The weapons used, manner of attack and the destruction caused shows it to be pre-planned, the court said.

“Acts which threaten the unity and integrity of India and causes friction in communal harmony and creates terror in any section of the people, by making them feel surrounded resulting in violence, is also a terrorist act,” it said.

From the riots that ultimately ensued, it can easily be said that it was not a sudden act but a thought out premeditated act, it said.

The court also rejected the contention made by defence counsel that Khalid was part of the Whatsapp group 'MSJ' and 'DPSG' but he had not written many messages in those groups and they are not overtly provocative or incriminatory, saying the fact that he was part of such groups created for specific objects and his acts or presence throughout the period beginning from the passing of the CAB Bill in December 2019 till the February 2020 riots has to be read in totality and not piecemeal.

During the argument, the accused told the court that the prosecution lacked the evidence to prove it's case against him.

Khalid and several others have been booked under the anti-terror law in the case for being the "masterminds" of the February 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence had erupted during the protests against the CAA and the National Register of Citizens.

Besides Khalid, activist Khalid Saifi, JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain and several others have also been booked under the stringent law in the case.