Owaisi targets Congress over UAPA, denial of bail to Khalid and Imam

Amravati (Maharashtra): AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has blamed Congress for activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam not getting bail, saying the stringent UAPA under which they have been booked was enacted during a Congress government.

The Hyderabad MP was speaking at a public meeting in the Chandni Chowk area of Amravati in Maharashtra on Saturday ahead of January 15 civic elections.

The people who talk of secularism during elections are in fact enemies of Muslims, Dalits and tribals as they use political secularism to gain votes, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) said.

Both Khalid and Imam were denied bail by the Supreme Court in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case on the basis of Section 15A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, he said.

It was then home minister P Chidambaram who introduced the UAPA (during the Congress-led regime), Owaisi said, adding that he was the only one who objected to it in Parliament.

"I was the only one who had said that this law would be used by police against Muslims, tribals, Dalits and those intellectuals who understand and oppose the government's policies. You can see what happened today, these two children could not get bail because of the definition of terrorism in that law," he said.

While Khalid and Imam are languishing in jail for five years, 85-year-old Stan Swamy -- an accused in the Elgar Parishad case -- died in jail because of this law, Owaisi added.

The Congress supported the BJP government when UAPA was amended in 2019, which is now destroying innocent lives, he further said.

The Supreme Court on January 5 refused bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case but granted it to five others, citing “hierarchy of participation”.