Two student activists, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, have not been given bail even after spending more than five years in jail without a trial. The Supreme Court rejected the bail requests of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam on Monday. Both were arrested after the 2020 Delhi riots.
Police say they were part of a plan to cause violence during the riots, which killed 53 people, most of them Muslims. They were arrested under a strict anti-terror law that makes bail very hard to get. Both men deny all the charges. They have asked for bail many times over the years, but courts have refused.
The Supreme Court said the cases of all seven accused in the matter could not be treated the same. The judges said Khalid and Imam faced different and more serious charges than the others, so they were denied bail. The court said they can apply for bail again only after one year.
At the same time, the court granted bail to five other activists in the same case. They are Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shadab Ahmed, and Shifa ur Rehman. All of them were involved in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The riots happened during long protests against the citizenship law, which the United Nations described as discriminatory. The case has drawn attention in India and outside the country. In 2022, a group that included former judges and a former home secretary said there was no strong proof to justify terror charges against the activists.
Last week, some members of the US Congress and Senate wrote to the Indian ambassador saying they were worried about the long time the activists have spent in jail without trial. Khalid has had his bail rejected at least five times. He was allowed short release twice to attend family weddings. Imam’s bail requests have also been rejected earlier.
Both Khalid and Imam were students at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi at the time of their arrest. They told the court that keeping them in jail for so long without a trial is like punishment without proof.
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Who is Umar Khalid?
Umar Khalid is an Indian student activist and researcher. He studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and was doing a PhD. He became known for speaking against government policies, especially the citizenship law passed in 2019, which many people felt was unfair to Muslims.
He was arrested in September 2020 after the Delhi riots that happened earlier that year. Police accused him of planning the violence. Fifty-three people were killed in the riots, most of them Muslims. Umar Khalid has denied all the charges. He was not in Delhi when the riots happened, and a speech linked to the case was made by him far away in Maharashtra, where he spoke against violence.
Since his arrest, he has been in jail without a trial or conviction. He has been held under a strict anti-terror law that makes getting bail very difficult. Courts have rejected his bail requests many times. He has spent five years in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
Human rights groups, lawyers, and activists in India and other countries say there is no strong proof against him and that keeping him in jail for so long without trial is unfair. They see him as a symbol of how voices of protest are being suppressed. Umar Khalid continues to say he believes in peace and non-violence and has not lost hope while in jail.
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