Delhi riots 2020 case in HC: Police opposes Sharjeel Imam's bail plea in UAPA case

The city police on Tuesday opposed in the Delhi High Court student activist Sharjeel Imam's plea seeking bail in a UAPA case linked to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 communal riots here.

The police relied on the speeches made by Imam to contend that he mobilised persons from the minority community and ''propagated'' 'chakka jam' as a mode of disruption with ''no window for peaceful protest''.

Imam, United Against Hate founder Khalid Saifi and several others, including Umar Khalid, have been booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the ''masterminds'' of the February 2020 riots in North-East Delhi which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad contended that the protests were part of a conspiracy of the accused persons to cause violence at the time of the visit of then US president Donald Trump.

He said Imam, in his public addresses, propagated the idea of 'chakka jam' as the plan of action while stating that ''confrontational violence has to happen''.

''His speeches are completely for the purpose of mobilisation. It is targeting on 'you will be finished if you don't come on roads, you will have nothing left'. All speeches are identical. All are about chakka jam, Babri, triple talaq, CAA and article 370,'' Prasad said.

''So mobilisation has been done, chakka jam has been done, confrontation has been done and then the riots happen,'' he stated.

He also emphasised that in a speech, Imam even spoke about ''cutting off'' the Northeast from the rest of the country by blocking the ''chicken neck'' corridor.

Imam, represented by senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, has earlier argued that there was no call for any violence whatsoever by him in his allegedly inflammatory speeches as his method of disruption was ''entirely Gandhian''.

He has stated that no offence of indulging in any ''terrorist act'' according to the UAPA or conspiracy with co-accused persons was made out against him.

On April 11, 2022, the trial court had denied relief of bail to Imam arrested in the present case on August 25, 2020. He has been in custody since January 2020 in several FIRs in connection with the violence.

The court will continue hearing the case on Wednesday.

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