The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Delhi Police on the petitions of Sharjil Imam, Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima, Miran Hyder and Shifa ur Rahman, which challenged the order of the Delhi High Court, which refused to bail them in the UAPA case related to the alleged big conspiracy behind the North-East Delhi riots of 2020.
A bench of Justice Arvind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria postponed the hearing of the case for October 27. Secret advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that he is a student and in jail for more than five years. The Peetha ordered, “Yes, we will listen to you and settle it … I issue notice to all.” The Delhi High Court on 2 September. Rahman, Athar Khan, Miran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima refused to bail.
On September 2, another accused Taslim Ahmed’s bail plea was rejected by a separate bench of the High Court. The Delhi Police opposed his bail pleas that it is not a matter of spontaneous riots, but is a case in which the riots were already planned and there was a horrific motive and a well-known conspiracy behind it.
The High Court had said that prima facie, the role of Imam and Khalid in the entire conspiracy is “serious”, as they had given inflammatory speeches on a “communal basis to mobilize the members of the Muslim community on a large scale. He had sought bail from the top court in the case of illegal activities (prevention) Act (UAPA) in the case of Delhi riots in February 2020.
In 2020, Delhi Police arrested the Imam under the UAPA and described it as the main conspirator in the Delhi riots case. The then proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the protest against the National Register of Citizen Register (NRC) erupted violence during the protests and 53 people were killed and more than 700 were injured.