Jail officials not allowing me to speak in court, says Umar Khalid

new delhi: Former JNU student leader and anti-CAA activist Umar Khalid on Thursday told a local court here that he was being held under solitary confinement in Tihar jail and that he was, in essence, being gagged in the virtual court by jail officials. Khalid is in judicial custody and was arrested in a UAPA case related to the north-east Delhi riots this

February.

Khalid's remarks were made directly to Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat after his lawyer Trideep Pais told the court that his client had raised his hand for quite a while and requested that he be allowed to speak. After putting forth his allegation that he was being kept in "solitary confinement", Khalid told the judge, "I would also like you to tell the jail staff to unmute me. Because when they wanted to speak to you they were not unmuting me and said that unless and until a judge asks you to unmute, we

can't allow."

To this, Judge Rawat pulled up the Assistant Jail Superintendent of Tihar prisons for refusing to unmute Khalid's microphone. It said, "If an undertrial wants to say something, then unmute and let him speak or you tell us that he wants to say something."

In fact, the court also directed the Tihar Jail Superintendent to appear before it today (Friday) after hearing Khalid's submissions on being held in solitary confinement. Khalid said he was shown an order passed by Additional Jail Superintendent of Jail number 2, which said he should not be allowed out of his cell for 24 hours.

When his counsel, advocate Trideep Pais, told the court that no adverse steps should be taken against him by the jail authorities for putting forward his grievances, the judge said, Khalid should not be punished for putting forward his grievances.

Khalid told the judge directly, "Your honour, I just wanted to bring your attention to some events that have happened inside the jail. I am aware that you have passed an order on 17 October saying that I would be given adequate security cover and will be able to continue with my routine day to day without any discrimination. However, for the last 3-4 days, I have been not allowed to step out of my jail cell, it's practically solitary confinement. Nobody is allowed near my cell. I am not allowed to step out of my cell. No one is allowed to talk to me. I wanted to just bring this to your notice because this is in contravention of your

orders."

Khalid's submissions were made when he was produced before the court along with co-accused and JNU student Sharjeel Imam in the UAPA case.

He went on to say, "In the morning, the jail superintendent visited me and I pointed out that this is absolutely not right what is happening and this is the grievance I have. The superintendent assured me that I (jail cell) should be opened. When he was there, I was let out for ten minutes, then he left and the jail staff and I have not been allowed outside ever since. This is solitary confinement, I have also not been well for the past three days and not been allowed to walk…as my comfort. I need security but security cannot be that I cannot step out at all. This is like a punishment, why am I being given this punishment?"