New Delhi: Left parties on Wednesday deplored the denial of bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others by the Delhi High Court in the “larger conspiracy” case of February 2020 riots, calling it a “travesty of justice”.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said this is the fifth time that their bail application has been rejected in the last five years and no charges have been framed yet.
“The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) deplores the Delhi High Court’s denial of bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and eight others. All of them have been under detention for over five years under the draconian UAPA for being linked to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 communal riots in Delhi,” the party said in a statement.
“It is all the more disturbing that even the charges against them have not been framed for the last five years. The Delhi High Court’s decision amounts to a travesty of justice, and negation of the principle that “grant of bail is the rule and refusal the exception,” it said.
The Left party said while these 10 youth languish in jail for over five years without any conviction, BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur, who have been accused of delivering hate speeches, are “roaming around scot-free”.
“It is also a grave judicial contradiction that while the accused in the Malegaon bomb blasts like Pragya Singh Thakur, Colonel Prasad Purohit and others were acquitted, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others are made to rot in jails for over five years,” the CPI(M) said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation said the young activists have been jailed under “fabricated” charges by the Delhi Police, “without a shred of credible evidence”.
“The Delhi High Court order of 2 September rejecting the bail pleas of nine activists – Sharjeel Imam (2044 days), Khalid Saifi (2015 days), Meeran Haider (1980 days), Gulfisha Fatima (1972 days), Shifa Ur Rehman (1955 days), Umar Khalid (1815 days), Athar Khan, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed – who have been unjustly incarcerated for years is a travesty of justice,” the CPI(ML) said.
“The so-called ‘larger conspiracy’, as termed by the police in the case, actually lies in the nexus between the police and right-wing Hindutva groups. The communal polarisation openly fanned by BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra, and the silence and complicity of the Delhi Police, represent the true conspiracy behind the February 2020 violence,” it said.
“Instead of holding the real culprits accountable, the state has chosen to persecute those who stood up against communal violence and led democratic protests against the unconstitutional CAA-NRC,” the CPI(ML) alleged.
“We hope the Supreme Court will take cognisance of this injustice and travesty, and uphold the fundamental right to liberty,” it added.
Denying bail to nine persons including Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ruled “conspiratorial” violence under the garb of demonstrations or protests by citizens cannot be allowed.
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur was dealing with the pleas of Imam, Khalid, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima and Shadab Ahmed.
The bail plea of another accused Tasleem Ahmed was decided and rejected by a different bench comprising Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar.
