Court says charges against Khalid, Saifi pertain to umbrella conspiracy
new delhi: Rejecting The charges against former JNU student Umar Khalid and United Against Hate founder Khalid Saifi pertained to the "umbrella conspiracy" or the larger conspiracy of the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, a court here has said while discharging them in a case linked to the riots. The FIR in the case was registered on the basis of the statement of Constable Sangram Singh who said a riotous mob had pelted stones on Main Karawal Nagar Road, besides setting ablaze several vehicles in a nearby parking lot on February 24, 2020.
The court framed charges against AAP leader Tahir Hussain and 10 others in the case.
"As far as accused Khalid Saifi and Umar Khalid are concerned, I find that allegations made against them relate to umbrella conspiracy, rather than conspiracy peculiar to the incident investigated in this case," Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala said in an order passed on Saturday.
"Since, umbrella conspiracy i.e, larger conspiracy to incite riots in Delhi is already the subject matter of consideration in FIR (No.) 59/2020 therefore, these two accused are entitled for discharge in the present case," the judge said in the order, uploaded on the court website on Monday.
The Crime Branch is investigating the conspiracy behind the start of riots in this FIR.
The Delhi Police arrested Umar Khalid, a former student leader of the JNU, in September 2020 in connection with the riots.
Explaining the concept of umbrella conspiracy, the court said it was the larger conspiracy subsuming several small conspiracies hatched under it.
"The objective of umbrella conspiracy may be wider than the objective of smaller conspiracy and planning to ignite a communal riot at a large level and taking steps for the prosecution of such plan, could be umbrella conspiracy and participants to this conspiracy may or may not be part of each smaller conspiracies and vice versa," the court said.
It said that when in pursuance to the objective of the larger conspiracy, smaller plans are made and executed to cause an incident of rioting at a particular place, it becomes a case of a smaller conspiracy under an umbrella conspiracy.
The court also discharged Tariq Moin Rizvi, Jagar Khan and Mohd. Illiyas, saying "the required degree of suspicion for the offence under section 212 (harbouring offender) of the Indian Penal Code is not made out against them."
The court, meanwhile, framed charges against Tahir Hussain and 10 others, saying from the statements of witnesses, the presence of all accused persons in the mob is "well reflected."
