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Delhi

As UAPA accused brought to court, family allowed to meet

New Delhi: As most of the eighteen accused in the "larger conspiracy" case during last year's Delhi Riots were produced physically for the first time before the Karkardooma Court here on Tuesday, their relatives and families heaved a sigh of relief as they were allowed to meet their loved ones after several months.

After the hearing, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat allowed the accused persons to meet their family members and relatives who were present outside the courtroom even as the deployment

of security personnel was ramped up across the premises in view of their first physical production.

Nargis, United Against Hate (UAH) founder Khalid Saif's wife, said that she along with her three children were eagerly waiting outside the courtroom longing to get a glance

of Saifi. "We last met him eight months ago when he was brought to the Sunlight Colony Police Station and were overjoyed when the judge finally allowed us to meet for a short while," she told Millennium Post.

She said that despite the resumption of jail mulaqats a few months back, which were disbanded in view of the pandemic, the policy of one meeting per month didn't allow her to meet her husband as it was mostly used by her relatives for urgent matters.

Nargis said that besides her, her children, two sons and one daughter, were very eager to meet their father and were elated when they saw him. "He had an emotional attachment with his children and broke down as he saw them...tomorrow is Khalid's birthday and he said he had got his birthday gift early," Nargis said.

"My daughter also made a card for Saifi and police officials thankfully allowed him to take

it with him to jail," Nargis further said.

However, she said that she is worried that her husband will be kept in a 14-day-quarantine period as per the jail manual which will "isolate him even further".

"The physical hearing allowed us to finally meet him albeit for a short while, but the quarantine period might emotionally break him even more," Nargis said.

Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) student Meeran Haider's brother-in-law, Maktoob Alam, also came to meet him when he was produced

before the court. "I last met him in April before his arrest and both of us are emotionally strong and lamented how and when this case will go on trial," Alam said.

"His father lives in Siwan district of Bihar and I am like his local guardian here. What should I say when these students have been falsely implicated in the case...there is no hope of justice as they have already spent so much time inside the jail," he added.

Among others, former JNU student Umar Khalid's friends and family members

too were waiting with bated breath to meet Khalid after

the judge allowed them to interact.

One of Khalid's friends and batchmates from JNU, Apeksha Priyadarshini, who was among the persons allowed to meet him, told Millennium Post that "Umar was in high spirits, told us to stay strong and was elated at seeing his sister and mother in person".

"He told us that he was happy that he had been allowed to come outside like this after such a long time...his mother became emotional as she had met him after such a long time," she said.

She said that during the meeting, which "hardly lasted for two minutes", Khalid

told them that some farmers who were arrested in connection with the violence during the farm agitation were also giving him company inside the jail.

"He has also been reading a lot and we have been regularly sending him books inside jail," Priyadarshini said.

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