A sessions court in Delhi Thursday granted bail to former JNU student Umar Khalid in last year’s northeast Delhi riots case.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav granted bail to Khalid, who was arrested in a case related to the riots that took place in Khajuri Khas in February 2020. The court observed that a witness blew the trumpet of criminal conspiracy against Khalid “did not appeal to the senses”.
Khalid was arrested in the case in October, 2020, and was in judicial custody. He was arrested in September last year in a separate case related to the conspiracy in the riots and booked under the stringent anti-terror law — Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The judge said that Khalid will be given bail on payment of Rs 20,000 bond and surety of like amount. As a further bail condition, he asked Khalid to install the Aarogya Setu app.
While Khalid has got bail in FIR 101, FIR 59 – under which he has been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act – is still pending. It is therefore unlikely that he will walk free right away.
Communal violence had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 last year leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured. More than 750 cases were registered in the northeast Delhi violence, in which at least 53 people were killed and several others injured. So far, over 250 charge sheets have been filed in the riots-related cases in which 1,153 accused have been charge-sheeted.
Khalid had moved an application last month seeking directions towards safeguarding his security during his physical production in the court for the remand proceedings.
