'String Of Commonality': Delhi High Court Rejects Argument On Ideological Differences Between Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam

Rejecting an argument that there was no ideological meeting of minds between Umar Khalid and co-accused Sharjeel Imam in the case of alleged larger conspiracy behind Northeast riots, the Delhi High Court Tuesday said it finds "it a little difficult" to accept the contention as there exists a string of commonality among all the accused.

The observation has been made in response to Senior Advocate Trideep Pais's argument that lower court misinterpreted witness statements to draw a connection between Khalid and Imam whereas they have never spoken to each other. Pais, who represented Khalid, had argued that he "was being lumped with a person who calls for a deeply communal protests" against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

"It is admitted position that both the appellant and Imam are members of the same WhatsApp group. It is also an admitted position that the duo participated in the Jantar Mantar protest. There is statement of various protected witnesses, that speak to the presence of the duo at several meetings including in the one held at the office of PFI," said the division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar.

The court added that it cannot test the veracity of witness statements at the stage of bail under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. "The way, this court reads the judgment passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Watali, is that the court at the stage of bail can only look at material and evidence as stated in charge-sheet without testing its veracity. It can be rebutted only at the stage when there is other evidence, which is axiomatically at the trial," it said.

It further said the chargesheet revealed that Khalid was in constant touch with other co-accused persons including Imam. The court said Imam "is arguably at the head of the conspiracy".

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Title: Umar Khalid v. State

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 982