Delhi Riots: High Court to hear Sharjeel Imam's bail plea in UAPA case tomorrow

The Delhi High Court will on Monday hear a bail plea by JNU student and activist Sharjeel Imam in a UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 riots hereImam who was arrested in February 2020 was on Saturday discharged along with 10 others in the 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case with the court saying they were made scapegoats by policeAlso readDelhi court discharges Sharjeel Imam in 2019 Jamia violence caseThe plea which was filed in April 2022 against a trial court order refusing to grant bail to Imam in the matter is listed before a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish BhatnagarIn this case Sharjeel Imam and several others including Umar Khalid have been booked under the antiterror law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the masterminds of the February 2020 riots in the NorthEast Delhi which left 53 people dead and over 700 injuredThe violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act CAA and the National Register of Citizens NRCOn April 11 2022 Special Judge Amitabh Rawat denied relief to Imam and rejected his bail pleaIn his appeal Imam has submitted before the high court that in the absence of any admissible material the trial court wrongly found him to be a part of the conspiracy to cause riots and there is no prima facie case against him for the commission of any terrorist act under the stringent UAPAImam has also said he is a final year PhD student having no prior criminal antecedents and the trial court failed to appreciate that the entire investigation is faulty and that there is no connection between his speeches and the incidents of violenceThe plea alleged that Imam was arrested by the Delhi police as part of a targeted campaign against him and he was already in custody in connection with other cases when the violence broke out in Northeast Delhi and had no communication with the other alleged coconspiratorsOn October 18 last year the high court refused to grant bail to coaccused Umar Khalid in the same case saying he was in constant touch with other coaccused and allegations against him were prima facie trueIt had also observed that Sharjeel Imam arguably was at the head of the conspiracy and there existed a string of commonality running amongst all the coaccusedOn December 9 last year the Supreme Court however clarified the observations made in respect of Imam in the high court verdict rejecting the bail plea of coaccused Umar Khalid would not prejudice his bail plea pending thereThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever