NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant bail to student activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the alleged “larger conspiracy” case linked to the 2020 Delhi riots.
However, the apex court granted bail to Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed, all of whom have been in custody for more than five years.
The Justice Kumar-led Bench said it was necessary to examine each bail application independently, since the record disclosed that the appellants did not all stand on equal footing with respect to culpability.
“The hierarchy of participation requires the court to assess each application individually,” the Supreme Court said, holding that Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam stood on a qualitatively different footing as compared to the other accused.
Earlier, on December 10, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the batch of special leave petitions (SLPs) challenging the Delhi High Court’s refusal to grant bail to the accused in the 2020 riots “larger conspiracy” case.
During the proceedings, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for Ms. Fathima, had questioned what “public interest” would be served by the continued incarceration of a woman who had already spent nearly six years in custody as an undertrial. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, also appearing for the petitioners, had characterised such prolonged detention as amounting to a pre-trial conviction.
Per contra, Additional Solicitor-General S.V. Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police, had argued that the scale of the violence, its degree of preparation, and the intent behind it left “no doubt” that the conspiracy extended far beyond civil demonstrations against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. According to the prosecution, the violence formed part of a coordinated “regime-change operation” executed under the guise of civil dissent. — With inputs from IANS
