Sharjeel moves SC against denial of bail in riots case

Four days after the Delhi High Court rejected the bail plea of former JNU students Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and eight others in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 north-east Delhi riots, Sharjeel on Saturday moved the top court against the denial of bail by the high court.

Sharjeel’s petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s September 2 order is yet to be listed for hearing before the top court.

Arrested on January 28, 2020, from Jehanabad in Bihar, Sharjeel has been in jail for over five and a half years. A Division Bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur had rejected the bail pleas of Sharjeel, Umar Khalid, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima saying that they did not deserve parity with co-accused Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, who were granted bail in September 2020.

“It is trite in law that merely because co-accused have been granted bail, it doesn’t, by itself, entitle the other accused to bail; there are other considerations and factors which weigh in for considering parity,” the high court said.

“In our prima facie view, the role ascribed to the present appellants, as reflected from the material on record, is distinct than that of co-accused Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal in the alleged conspiracy,” the high court said, concluding that “the ground of parity is not made out in favour of the appellants”.

The bail plea of accused Tasleem Ahmed was dismissed by another Delhi HC Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar.

The high court had held that the Constitution affords citizens the right to protest and carry out demonstrations or agitations, provided they are orderly, peaceful and without arms and such actions must be within the bounds of law.

The accused, including Imam, are facing charges of criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between various groups and making statements conducing to public mischief under the IPC and Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, for questioning the sovereignty, unity or territorial integrity of India and causing disaffection against it.

Imam and several other persons were booked under the anti-terror law UAPA and certain provisions of the IPC for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the “larger conspiracy” behind the February 2020 Delhi riots that claimed 53 lives and left more than 700 injured. The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.