Delhi riots ‘larger conspiracy case’: Those facing graver allegations granted bail, says Umar Khalid

Advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid, revealed the change of circumstances in Delhi’s Karkardooma Court on Thursday. “The factual basis on which three accused in the case have been granted bail have several overlaps with me,” said Pais. He also argued that the court could consider if Khalid was entitled to a bail of parity even though he was charged with the stringent UAPA as the law was interpreted differently by a Supreme Court judgment in 2023.

“The court must be satisfied with the probative value of evidence at the stage of examining bail,” said Pais, adding that no terrorist act had been attributed to the accused by the prosecution.

Another change of circumstances cited by the advocate was the continued incarceration of the accused. Reading from the police chargesheet, Pais said the prosecution cited 15 instances to point out the involvement of the accused – in many of these, there were no witnesses.

Pais said the prosecution also mentioned four WhatsApp groups in the chargesheet to allege a conspiracy – out of these, he said Khalid wasn’t part of two groups. He alleged that many persons in these two groups were not even made an accused.

In one group, Khalid didn’t even send a single message. In the fourth WhatsApp group which Khalid was a part of, he sent only five messages – three of which were Google Maps locations. Khalid also put up a message on behalf of the police to call off the protest, claimed Pais, adding that the accused never instigated violence through this group.

“The two accused who were in Northeast Delhi during the riots are on bail. They’re in the same group as me… they’re far more involved in the group… a witness also made a direct allegation of rioting against these two,” said Pais.

Noting another instance cited by the prosecution against Khalid, of a meeting attended by seven people, Pais said only two persons out of these were made accused.

“Why are just two of the seven persons being made an accused? What makes them stand out?” said Pais, adding that participation in a meeting whose contents were unknown to the prosecution was not illegal.

Citing one instance where there was a witness, Pais said his statements, when tallied with the chargesheet, were incorrect. He further added that the Delhi High Court granted bail to co-accused Asif Iqbal Tanha despite the statements of the same witness who had attributed much more severe crimes to Tanha.
While citing another instance wherein the prosecution had alleged that three accused had met to hatch a conspiracy in Shaheen Bagh, Pais argued that the accused was not visible in any CCTV footage.

Pais also argued that in other instances of meetings with other co-accused, their CDRs didn’t match with Khalid’s. “They’re all at different locations… how did they plan a grand conspiracy?”

“The first time India announced that (then US President Donald) Trump would visit (was) on January 13. The prosecution claims that the accused gathered on January 8 to disrupt his event,” said the counsel, adding that nobody even knew that Trump was coming to India on January 8.

Apart from Khalid, the other accused in the case include Devangana Kalita; Natasha Narwal; Asif Iqbal Tanha; former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain; Khalid Saifi; ex-Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan; Safoora Zargar; Sharjeel Imam; Meeran Haider; Gulfisha Fatima; Shifa-Ur-Rehman; Shadab Ahmed; Tasleem Ahmed; Saleem Malik; Mohd. Saleem Khan; Athar Khan; and Faizal Khan. While Tanha, Narwal and Kalita are out on bail, the other 14 accused have been in jail for the past 4 years.