A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed former JNU student leader Umar Khalid bail plea in connection with the Northeast Delhi riots UAPA larger conspiracy case.
The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat after he deferred the order on Mr. Khalid’s bail plea thrice previously due to late submission of written arguments from both defense counsel and the prosecutor.
The court had reserved order in the case earlier this month.
Senior Advocate Trideep Pais was arguing on behalf of Mr. Khalid while Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad was arguing against the bail.
During the course of arguments, which stretched for around eight months, Mr. Pais submitted that the Delhi Police Special Cell’s case was fabricated and were based on doctored clips of Mr. Khalid’s Amravati speech run by television news channels.
Mr. Pais also argued that the entire charge sheet naming Mr. Khalid as the mastermind of the conspiracy read like the script of popular television series Family Man and were nothing but hyperbolic allegations.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor argued that Mr. Khalid wanted to create a perception by comparing his case to Family Man and Trial of Chicago 7 and didn’t have anything to argue on the merits of the case.
SPP Prasad further submitted that Mr. Khalid was part of several secret meetings where chakka jams which led up to the riots were carefully planned and conceptualized.
Mr. Khalid is among the 18 accused in the UAPA case, which includes other student activists such as Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal.
