In the broader conspiracy case connected to the 2020 Delhi riots, Umar Khalid, a former JNU student leader, applied for bail, but Delhi’s Karkardooma court denite it on Tuesday.
Due process and equity with other accused parties were the reasons behind Khalid’s request for regular bail in this case.

The order regarding his bail application was reserved by Special Judge Sameer Bajpai on May 13.

The bail request was rejected by the special public prosecutor of the Delhi police, who described it as “frivolous and baseless”.

The lawyer for Umar Khalid had stated that his client was not accused of terrorism in the Delhi police charge sheet and that the document just repeated his name. He went on to say that a lie did not become the truth just because his name was said again.

Also, Khalid’s attorney claimed that his client was the victim of a vicious media trial.

Umar Khalid has been charged by the Delhi police with organizing protests at 23 locations in 2020 that resulted in riots.
After withdrawing his appeal from the Supreme Court in February, Umar Khalid filed a motion in the local court.

His lawyer had asked the judge, “Is sharing messages a criminal or terror act?”

By sharing specific links, the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) had claimed that Umar Khalid was exaggerating his story as a part of a conspiracy.

In response, Khalid’s attorney stated that the client was presenting the “true story.”

His attorney had previously contended that Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita, and Natasha Narwal—all of whom the Delhi High Court had granted bail—were charged with comparable crimes.

The Special Public Prosecutor stated that a number of people tried to sway Umar Khalid’s bail hearing by using X, an earlier version of Twitter.

“WhatsApp chats also revealed that he is in the habit of creating media and social media narratives at the time of listing bail applications of the person booked in cases to clearly influence bail hearings,” stated the public prosecutor in opposition to Khalid’s bail.

He made reference to tweets from various journalists and activists, including Teesta Seetalvad, Aakar Patel, Kaushik Raj, Arju Ahmed, and Swati Chaturvedi.