New Delhi: A court here on Monday granted one-week interim bail to former JNU student Umar Khalid, arrested in a case related to the northeast Delhi riots, for attending his sister's wedding.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat granted relief to Khalid from December 23 to 30. He has to surrender on December 30 and no extension can be granted, a court source said.
The detailed order is awaited. Khalid had moved an application seeking two weeks' interim bail — from December 20 to January 3 — for his sister's wedding. Khalid was booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being a mastermind of the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Khalid was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020.
He was discharged in a case related to the riots on December 3.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on the bail plea by United Against Hate (UAH) founder Khalid Saifi in a UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 riots.
"Arguments have been heard. Judgement is reserved," said a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar.
Counsel for Saifi claimed that the accused did not even send a "single message where chakka jam is reflected" and no "terrorist activity" can be attributed to him.
"Whichever way you look, the evidence against Khalid Saifi is dubious. The only commonality between me and Umar Khalid whose bail application the court has rejected is (a meeting at Shaheen Bagh) that is not evidence of conspiracy... rest is your (police) imagination and imagination has no place in criminal law," senior advocate Rebecca John, appearing for Saifi argued.
"It is time we put an end to imagination and fanciful theories," she said. Khalid Saifi and several others, including Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, have been booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the February 2020 riots in the North-East Delhi, which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
John argued that a prima facie case is made out for the grant of bail to Saifi in the UAPA case and organising a protest is not a terrorist act. She also contended that Saifi has not given any provocative speech and he cannot be "made responsible for what other (accused) are saying" while emphasising that he has been discharged in another riots case.
"This is not a discharge of insignificance. Of the three cases against me, I have only two (remaining). I am on bail in one, and one is this UAPA (case)," John said. Delhi Police has opposed the bail plea, saying that its case against Saifi was "not a figment of imagination" and it was clear from the WhatsApp messages exchanged between the accused that protests against CAA and NRC had to be followed by chakka jam and then violence.