A Delhi court on Monday deferred its order on the bail plea of activist Umar Khalid in a case related to communal violence in Delhi in February 2020, PTI reported. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said the court was not ready and reserved the order for 4 pm on March 23.
This is for the second time that Khalid’s bail order has been deferred after the court had on March 3, reserved its verdict. The bail order was earlier to be passed on March 14, but was postponed to March 21 after the court said that the defence lawyers had not filed their written submissions in the case.
Khalid has been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act along with two students of the city’s Jamia Millia Islamia University, Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar in connection with the Delhi violence case. Zargar was granted bail in June 2020 on humanitarian grounds.
Communal violence had broken out between the supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing the law in North East Delhi between February 23 and February 26, 2020. The violence claimed 53 lives and hundreds were injured. The majority of those killed were Muslims.
In their first information report, the police alleged that Khalid made provocative speeches at two protest sites and had appealed to the people of Delhi to hold demonstrations in the streets during former United States President Donald Trump’s visit to India, which had coincided with the violence in the national Capital.
The FIR also said that Khalid aimed to spread “propaganda at the global level” about how religious minorities in India were being mistreated.
During the hearing, Khalid’s counsel had argued that the prosecution lacked evidence to prove its case and said it was based on video clips run by television channels, according to Live Law.
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