The High Court (HCt) of Delhi Tuesday denied bail to student-activist Umar Khalid. Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar dismissed the application and held that it has no merit. The court questioned Khalid’s “obnoxious, hateful, [and] offensive” speech and his use of the terms Inquilabli Salam (revolutionary salute) and Krantikari Istiqbal (revolutionary welcome). Justice Bhatnagar observed that “the call to revolution may affect many beyond those who were visibly present.”
Khalid was arrested on September 13, 2020, for promoting enmity, outraging religious feelings, sedition, and criminal conspiracy under the UAPA. Prosecutors allege that riots in North East Delhi between February 23, 2020, and February 25, 2020, were the result of a preplanned conspiracy between Khalid and other conspirators to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA). Khalid has been in custody for 765 days and filed the present bail application after the Karkardooma Court rejected his application in March.
Amnesty International condemned the denial of bail as a “huge blow to everyone exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in the country.” Human Rights Watch said Khalid’s arrest was another case of “politically motivated cases under severe sedition and terrorism laws against critics of the government.”
