Delhi Riots: High Court's New Division Bench Headed By Justice Navin Chawla To Hear Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam Bails Tomorrow

The Delhi High Court will hear tomorrow the bail pleas filed by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and other accused persons in connection with the UAPA case alleging a larger conspiracy related to the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. 

The bail pleas will be heard by a division bench comprising of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur. 

Along with Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, the new bench will also hear bail pleas of co accused persons Mohd. Saleem Khan, Shifa ur Rehman, Shadab Ahmed, Athar Khan, Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima. 

The bench will also hear Delhi Police's appeal against bail granted to accused Ishrat Jahan. The batch will be heard at 3:15 PM. 

Umar Khalid was denied bail in October 2022 by a coordinate bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul. He then approached the Supreme Court but later withdrew his SLP. A second regular bail pleas was filed by him in the trial court which was rejected earlier this year. 

Khalid's appeal has now challenged rejection of his second regular bail plea. Notice in the bail plea was issued by a division bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait in August. 

Bail appeals of other accused persons are pending in the Delhi High Court since 2022.

The new division bench has been allotted the bail appeals after previous benches have either recused from hearing them or could not completely hear and decide the cases.

FIR 59 of 2020 was registered by Delhi Police's Special Cell under various offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The accused in the case are Tahir Hussain, Umar Khalid, Khalid Saifi, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Athar Khan, Safoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam, Faizan Khan and Natasha Narwal.

Also Read: The Never-Ending Bail Hearing In Delhi Riots Conspiracy Case