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The Supreme Court connected Monday (September 22, 2025) sought the Delhi Police’s effect connected the bail pleas of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider and Shifa Ur Rehman in the larger conspiracy lawsuit linked to the 2020 Delhi riots.
A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria issued announcement and posted the substance for October 7.
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Senior advocator Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Ms. Fatima, submitted that she was a “student who has been down bars for implicit 5 years.” He pointed retired that she had besides moved an exertion for interim bail and urged the tribunal to contented announcement connected it arsenic well.
Justice Kumar, however, remarked, “We volition yet dispose of the main petition itself.”
Senior advocator Kapil Sibal, representing Mr. Khalid, besides sought announcement connected the pleas. “Your Lordships whitethorn assistance notice,” helium said.
The petitioners are among 9 accused whose bail pleas were rejected by the Delhi High Court connected September 2. A Division Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur (since retired) had held that the accused played “prima facie grave” roles successful the alleged conspiracy.
Alongside the 4 petitioners, the High Court had denied bail to activists Khalid Saifi, Athar Khan, Mohd. Saleem Khan, and Shadab Ahmed, endorsing the prosecution’s assertion that the riots were not “a regular protest” but a “premeditated, well-orchestrated conspiracy.” The bail plea of different accused, Tasleem Ahmed, was dismissed by a abstracted Bench connected September 9.
The accused look charges nether the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code.
The Delhi Police, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad, person alleged that the activists were the “masterminds” of the violence, which near 53 radical dormant and much than 700 injured successful February 2020, during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the projected National Register of Citizens.
“If the workout of an unfettered close to protestation were permitted, it would harm the law model and impinge upon instrumentality and order. Conspiratorial unit nether the garb of protests cannot beryllium permitted”, the High Court said successful its 133-page verdict. It besides observed that the riots were “deliberately timed” to coincide with the sojourn of past U.S. President Donald Trump, and truthful could not beryllium “lightly brushed aside.”
Mr. Imam, the archetypal to determination the Supreme Court, has sought bail connected the crushed that helium has spent implicit 5 and a fractional years successful pre-trial detention since his apprehension connected January 28, 2020. Mr. Khalid, arrested connected September 13, 2020, has likewise urged the tribunal to see the magnitude of his continued incarceration.
The accused person argued that their prolonged incarceration is the effect of systemic delays, and that specified detention violates their close to liberty and a speedy trial.
Their lawyers person besides sought bail connected the grounds of parity with the co-accused already released. Activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and Asif Iqbal Tanha secured bail successful June 2021, portion erstwhile Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan was released successful March 2022.
