No criminal connect with Delhi riots: Umar Khalid tells High Court

In a UAPA case involving the alleged conspiracy behind the riots in Delhi in February 2020, the Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its order on a bail plea by Umar Khalid, a former JNU student who claimed he had neither a "criminal role" in the violence nor a "conspiratorial connect" with any other accused in the matter.

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Umar Khalid, who was detained by Delhi Police in September 2020, said that the prosecution's case against him lacked evidence and that he had just brought up topics that people were already talking about in the other countries, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act.

There's no wrong way to bring up these problems, he said, adding that the speech in Amravati that the accusations are based on did not incite any violence and included a clear appeal for peace.

He said the prosecution was "making things up as it went along," that some allegations in the Delhi police charge sheet were unfounded, and that the alleged plan should have been "towards violence in Delhi" rather than "raising problems of unfairness."

"The only overt act attributed to me (by the prosecution) is the speech (in Amravati in Maharashtra), which was a public event. That did not lead to violence anywhere. To simplify and say 'oh that speech in Amaravati was targeted towards Delhi' (is not right). Donald Trump went to Ahmedabad also (and there was no violence there). We have the liberty to travel anywhere to India and make speeches if we want to," senior advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid, told a bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul.

"My speech has a categorical call for non-violence and I request your lordship to read the speech as a whole and not in the manner in which my learned friend (prosecutor) wants to dissect it, take one sentence and then place it on his own conjecture. This speech does not show any conspiratorial connect with anybody, any other accused, or any violence whatsoever," he further told the bench, also comprising Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar.

For their roles as suspected "masterminds" in the riots that killed 53 and wounded over 700 in February 2020, Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and numerous others have been charged under the anti-terrorism statute Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

During the demonstrations against CAA and NRC, violence broke out.

In April, the court heard Khalid's bail application and sent a notice to the Delhi Police.

Special public prosecutor Amit Prasad for the Delhi Police has argued against Khalid's bail application, claiming that his speech in Amravati in February 2020 was a "very calculated speech" that intentionally brought up sensitive topics such as the Babri Masjid, triple talaq, Kashmir, the persecution of Muslims, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The senior attorney emphasised that Khalid should be freed since there were no charges of "advocating chakka jam" against him and that the inquiry was still ongoing.

Activist Khalid Saifi, students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita from JNU, Safoora Zargar and Tahir Hussain, all formerly of the AAP council, and a number of others have all been charged under the strict legislation.

(With inputs from PTI)