The Supreme Court deferred the hearing of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid’s bail application in a UAPA case connected to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in North-East Delhi for four weeks on Tuesday.
The hearing was adjourned by a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela Trivedi, who said the matter required a full hearing and requested senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who was representing Khalid, to file papers in the case.
The bench told Sibal, “List the case after four weeks… In this matter, we will have to go document-by-document. You have to show us what evidence is available and how it does not match with the charges against you.”
Sibal stated that certain articles of the UAPA, such as those dealing with terrorism, raising finances for terrorist acts, and conspiracy, did not apply in this case. Khalid has petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn an October 2022 Delhi High Court decision that had refused him bail.
Khalid, who was detained by Delhi Police in September 2020, had sought bail in the High Court on the basis that he had neither “criminal role” in the violence in the city’s North-East district, nor any “conspiratorial connect” with any other accused in the case. The Delhi police had opposed Khalid’s bail application.