Activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam have filed fresh bail pleas before a Delhi court in the 2020 riots conspiracy case, Bar and Bench reported on Saturday.
The application filed by Imam contends that despite six months since the Supreme Court denied him bail, there had been no meaningful progress in the trial, Bar and Bench reported.
The arguments on the charge are incomplete, Imam argued, adding that he has been in jail for nearly six years.
The bench asked the Delhi Police to respond to the pleas and listed the matter to be heard on July 4, Live Law reported.
Khalid, Imam and the other activists had been arrested between January 2020 and September 2020 in connection with the communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.
The persons accused in the matter have been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The police have claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was planned by those who organised the protests against the amended Citizenship Act.
Khalid and Imam’s fresh applications came nearly a month after a Supreme Court bench on May 18 criticised a January order by another bench that had denied them relief in the matter, observing that “bail is the rule and jail is an exception” even in prosecutions under the anti-terror law.
The observations criticising the January verdict had been made while hearing an unrelated bail plea of a person booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
On May 22, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale referred the matter relating to bail in anti-terror law cases involving prolonged incarcerations to a larger bench.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
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