NRC CAA activist Umar Khalid has been granted interim bail for three days to attend to his ailing mother, who is undergoing surgery, and attended the ritual relating to his uncle’s death.
The bail was granted by the Delhi High Court on Friday following the rejection of a plea by the trial court. His interim start is from June 1 and will end back on June 3.
A division bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Madhu Jail granted the bail on the basis of an empathetic view of the matter.
As per the plea filed before the trial court, Umar’s uncle Khursheed Ahmad Khan died on April 10, and the Chehlum rituals were scheduled in Delhi on May 24; along with that, Khalid also submitted that his mother has been ailing and has had to undergo a lump excision surgery on June 2. Ahead of this the court granted interim bail. Furthermore, the order says that he would not visit any place other than the hospital and his place of stay. He has been allowed to use only one mobile number and be in constant touch with the investigating officer during the period of interim bail.
Khalid has been in jail in connection with the larger conspiracy case linked to the Delhi riots 2020, which claimed the lives of at least 53 individuals.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raji appeared for the Delhi Police and opposed the plea and said that Khalid’s mother had to undergo only a minor surgery and his sister would take care of her.
Furthermore, the center’s law officer said that Khalid could be permitted to visit his mother and return the same day under police custody instead of being granted three days of interim bail. Earlier than this, Khalid also submitted permission to seek temporary release for 15 days; however, the plea was dismissed.
Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of the Karkardooma Courts dismissed the application filed under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), read with Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
In December last year, Delhi court granted Khalid interim bail for 14 days to attend his sister’s wedding with restrictions on movement and social media use. Apart from this, he had received bail on occasions in 2020 and 2024.
Umar Khalid has been in custody since September 2020 under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other charges. According to the Delhi Police, several student activists involved in organizing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) during 2019–20 were part of a larger conspiracy that allegedly led to the communal violence in Northeast Delhi in February 2020.
