Who is Umar Khalid and why he is in jail for last 4 years? Charges against him are….

Umar Khalid, a former student activist of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) completed four years in penal complex on Saturday (September 14), following his arrest right for the duration of the 2020 Delhi riots case. Khalid, who became dubbed because the “poster boy” of anti- Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests which rocked Delhi in 2020 and resulted in the deaths of fifty three people, has spent four years in Tihar Jail after being booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

What are the prices against Umar Khalid?

Umar Khalid,  a research-scholar on the JNU, became arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020 and booked under UAPA. The police have named Khalid, 36, because the “key conspirator” right for the duration of the Delhi communal violence case which resulted in the deaths of fifty three people and left as a minimum 200 others injured.

According to the police, Umar Khalid “conspired” and “instigated” the deadly communal clashes which broke out in Delhi on February 24, 2020, after pro and anti-CAA protesters clashed right for the duration of the capital city.

Since his arrest right for the duration of the case, Khalid has been denied bail by the court on a few occasions and spent the last four years without facing a trial and even the prices being framed against him and other activists who have been arrested right for the duration of the same case.

Notably, a Delhi court in December 2022, acquitted Umar Khalid in a case of alleged rioting, vandalism and arson at a car automobile automobile parking space in February 2020, but the former JNU student leader remains to be on the back of bars right for the duration of the second case against him under the UAPA and greater than just a few provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly being a “mastermind” of the northeast Delhi riots.

Khalid, a 36-year-old researcher and scholar, became arrested on September 13, 2020, and charge-sheets were filed against him in 2020 and 2022. Alternatively, the framing of charges has been delayed right for the duration of the second case against him and his attempts to are attempting to in finding for bail have been turned down by courts.

No bail, no trial

Khalid has been awaiting trial right for the duration of the second case for the past four years for the duration of which the courts have denied him bail. The jailed activist had also filed a plea tough the constitutional validity of a selection UAPA provisions, which became amended by the Narendra Modi-led government in 2019, empowering the central government to designate a non-public as a ‘terrorist’.

On March 24, 2022, a special court dismissed Khalid’s first bail , and the Delhi High Court rejected the appeal against it on October 18 of the same year, saying he became in constant touch with other co-accused and the allegations against him were prima facie true.

The high court had also said the actions of the accused prima facie qualified as a “terrorist act” under the UAPA.

It said that admittedly, the anti-CAA protests “metamorphosed into violent riots”, which “prima facie appeared to be orchestrated on the conspiratorial meetings” and the statements of the witnesses indicated Khalid’s “active involvement” right for the duration of the protests.

Khalid then appealed right for the duration of the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s order, which had rejected his bail application.

Khaild’s bail application had been pending right for the duration of the very best court since April 6, 2023, and the complaints were adjourned 13 times as a consequence of a lot of reasons.

On February 14, this year, the very best court became told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Khalid, that he wished to withdraw the appliance resulting from a “change in circumstances”.

Sibal said, “I'd are taking a look to argue the legal question (tough UAPA provisions) but would are taking a look to withdraw the bail plea resulting from a metamorphosis in circumstances. We'll try our good fortune right for the duration of the trial court.”

On May 28, nevertheless it, the special court dismissed Khalid’s second regular bail plea, saying its previous order of March 2022 rejecting his first bail plea had attained finality.

It rejected the argument of Khalid’s counsel that the Supreme Court’s view about “prima facie evidence” against an accused had changed as a consequence of the grant of bail to activist Vernon Gonsalves in July 2023 and academic-activist Shoma Kanti Sen on April 5 this year right for the duration of the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

“As in line with Vernon’s case as relied upon by counsel for the applicant, while bearing in mind bail, no deep analysis of the facts of a case will likely be done and best surface analysis of the probative value of evidence has to be done…

“As such the high court has in point of fact did complete surface analysis of probative value of the evidence while bearing in mind the prayer of the applicant for grant of bail and after doing so it became concluded that prima-facie case is made out against the applicant,” the court said.

On July 22 this year, a Delhi High Court judge recused himself from hearing Khaled’s bail plea, without assigning any reason and it be miles pending.

‘Umbrella conspiracy’

On December 5, 2022, a court had discharged Khalid and United Against Hate founder Khalid Saifi right for the duration of the first case related to riots, saying the allegations against them pertained to an “umbrella conspiracy” or the larger conspiracy of riots, instead of the conspiracy right for the duration of the present case.

Explaining the idea that of umbrella conspiracy, the court said it became the larger conspiracy subsuming a few small conspiracies hatched under it.

The FIR right for the duration of the case became registered on the premise of the statement of Constable Sangram Singh who said a riotous mob had pelted stones on Main Karawal Nagar Road, besides setting ablaze a few vehicles in a detailed-by car automobile automobile parking space on February 24, 2020.

On March 6, 2020, police had filed the FIR right for the duration of the second case against Khalid and later invoked the UAPA on April 19, 2020. Later that year, the law enforcement officials filed the principle chargesheet on September 16, three days after arresting Khalid. In October 22, 2020, the first supplementary chargesheet right for the duration of the case became filed.

The second supplementary chargesheet became filed on February 23, 2022, while the third and fourth supplementary charge sheets were filed on March 2 and June 7, 2022.

On September four, a special court, while taking away the applications of some accused seeking directions to Delhi Police for disclosing whether the investigation right for the duration of the case became complete, allowed the prosecution to initiate its arguments on framing of charges against the accused.

The Delhi High Court, nevertheless it, on September 12 asked the trial court now to not pass a final order on framing of charges till September 23.

The high court’s order came while hearing a plea by riots accused Devangana Kalita seeking direction to the police to offer her with certain videos and WhatsApp chats in two cases, including one under the anti-terror law UAPA.

Who is Umar Khalid?

Umar Khalid, a research scholar on the Jawaharlal University (JNU), along with other student activists, first came to the limelight in 2013 when demonstrations erupted on the college to protest the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

Khalid became first arrested by the Delhi Police in February 2016 for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at an event on JNU campus against Guru’s execution.

(With PTI inputs)