The Supreme Court on Friday deferred till September 19 the hearing on petitions by Sharjeel Imam, former JNU student Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima and Meeran Haider seeking bail in the 2020 north-east Delhi riots under the stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The four had moved the top court against the Delhi High Court’s September 2 order rejecting their pleas.
The bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice N.V. Anjaria said it had received the case files only on Thursday night and could not go through them. “We got the files late last night, did not get the time to read them. The matter will be taken up on September 19,” the bench observed while adjourning the proceedings.
Earlier this month, the High Court had declined bail to Imam, Khalid and seven others — Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima. A separate bench of the same court had, on the same day, dismissed the plea of another accused, Tasleem Ahmed.
Opposing their pleas, Delhi Police had maintained that the violence of February 2020 was not spontaneous but carefully orchestrated with a “sinister design.” The High Court had noted in its order that, prima facie, Imam and Khalid played a “serious role” in the conspiracy by making provocative speeches designed to mobilise members of the Muslim community.
Khalid has approached the Supreme Court for bail in the conspiracy case. Imam faces charges as the key conspirator behind the riots.
The north-east Delhi riots, which coincided with protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), claimed 53 lives and left more than 700 injured.