Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader, Umar Khalid was granted seven days of interim bail by a Delhi court on Wednesday to attend his cousin’s wedding, from December 28 to January 3. Khalid had requested a 10-day interim bail through his lawyer.
Khalid has been in custody since September 2020 after being charged with provisions under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA in connection with the riots that erupted following protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Umar Khalid has applied for bail multiple times over the last four years, with his most recent attempt on December 6 being rejected by the Delhi high court.
After the dismissal of his bail plea by the high court in October 2022, Khalid moved the Delhi high court for the second time, asking for parity of treatment with co-accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Asif Iqbal Tanha and Ishrat Jahan, who were out on bail, reported news agency PTI.
Khalid’s lawyer also argued that during the violence that erupted in the CAA protests, the accused was not even in northeast Delhi and had advocated for the “Gandhian principle” of non-violence in a speech delivered in Amravati.
Appearing before Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, senior advocate Trideep Pais had also questioned why Khalid had been named as an accused when several others who allegedly attended the conspiracy meetings were not named in the case, including leaders such as Yogendra Yadav and filmmaker Rahul Roy.
Umar Khalid had also claimed during the December 6 hearing that there had been no physical evidence collected that tied him to the Delhi riots in 2020.
