A Delhi court on Wednesday granted interim bail for a week to activist Umar Khalid in the larger conspiracy case related to the 2020 Delhi riots, Bar and Bench reported.
Karkardooma court judge Sameer Bajpai granted Khalid relief from December 28 to January 3, to attend his cousin's wedding.
Khalid was arrested by the Delhi Police on September 13, 2020. He was granted a similar relief in December 2022 to attend his sister’s wedding.
The activist has been booked under an Unlawful Activities Prevention Act case pertaining to clashes that had broken out between February 23 and February 26, 2020, among supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it in North East Delhi. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.
The Delhi Police claim the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and was hatched by those who organised the protests, including Khalid, against the amended Citizenship Act.
They also claim the protestors had secessionist motives and were using “the facade of civil disobedience” to destabilise the government. The police had arrested several activists and students, including Khalid, based on these conspiracy charges.
On Wednesday, Khalid was directed to furnish a Rs 20,000 personal bond and two sureties of the same amount. He has been prohibited from using social media or contacting witnesses related to the case.
The court also directed him to meet only family, relatives, and friends, and stay at home or at places where ceremonies and functions related to marriage will take place.
Khalid’s regular bail plea is pending before the Delhi High Court.
He approached the High Court after a trial court rejected his bail plea on May 28.
He had approached the trial court after withdrawing his bail plea from the Supreme Court on February 24, arguing that the circumstances of his cases had changed. His bail petition before the top court had been adjourned 14 times.
Khalid had moved the Supreme Court after his bail applications were rejected by the High Court in October 2022. Before that, he was denied bail by the trial court in March 2022.
In August 2023, Supreme Court judge PK Mishra recused himself from hearing Khalid’s plea.
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