The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said the Supreme Court’s order denying bail to accused Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots case is a “slap in the face” of the Congress. The party also asked the opposition party to apologize for supporting the “tukde-tukde gang”.
Describing Khalid and Imam as ‘poster boys’ of divisive forces in India, the BJP claimed that to save them, the entire Congress machinery was projecting them as ‘innocent victims’.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant bail to Khalid and Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case, saying a prima facie case was made out against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
A bench of Justices Arvind Kumar and NV Anjaria, however, granted bail to other accused in the case, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Salim Khan and Shadab Ahmed. BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala, reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision, wrote on social media platform ‘X’, “Satyamev Jayate.”
“The Supreme Court refused to grant bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam,” he said. The allegations are prima facie true. Poonawalla said the Congress should apologize for supporting the “tukde tukde gang from Afzal to Umar and Sharjeel”.
BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari termed the apex court’s verdict as a “slapping slap” on the face of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress ecosystem, alleging that they had portrayed “poster boys of Tukde-Tukde, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, as innocent victims”. He alleged that Gandhi’s “urban Naxalites” have been defeated in the court of public opinion and the court of law. Bhandari asked, “Will the Congress apologize to the country for portraying the fragmented forces hostile to India as victims?”
