Daily Briefing: Decoding the SC verdict on Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam bail pleas

On that note, let’s get to the rest of today’s edition👇

🚨 Big Story

The Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, accused in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case. The Bench noted that while the period of their incarceration was “substantial”, it had not crossed the “threshold of constitutional impermissibility”.

Meanwhile, the court granted bail to five other accused: Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Salim Khan, and Shadab Ahmad. Here’s what the judgment means:

👉 The Supreme Court has created a “hierarchy” in the role of offenders, and based its judgment on “individualised assessment of culpability”. In the case of Khalid and Imam, the Bench held them as the “ideological drivers” or “masterminds” behind the alleged conspiracy to convert protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) into chakka jams to paralyse Delhi. In contrast, the five other accused were called “local-level facilitators”. Vineet Bhalla explains.

👉 The court has also expanded the definition of “terrorist act” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) — the law under which the seven accused were charged. The means with which such acts are carried out are not confined to “bombs”, “explosives” or “conventional weapons alone”, the court has said. Apurva Vishwanath explains.

⚡Only in Express

The Venezuelan Heist: India’s response to the United States whisking away Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his country has been criticised as “timid”, compared to the other BRICS nations. But Delhi’s restraint isn’t new. It has spared moral sermons for major powers in recent times. Moreover, it doesn’t have much skin in the Latin American game. However, as columnist C Raja Mohan writes, India may now have a window of opportunity to expand its footprint in the region. Read.

The Trump administration is intent on “fixing” the Venezuelan oil industry. But will it benefit India? Immediate impact appears unlikely, but analysts suggest that there could be medium- to long-term benefits if some volumes of Caracas’s discounted crude oil are incorporated into India’s import mix.

📰 From the Front Page

Deal with it: US Ambassador Sergio Gor is expected to come to India in the next few days to finalise the trade deal. On Monday, US President Donald Trump warned once again that if India were to trade with Russia, the US could “raise tariffs on them very quickly.” Meanwhile, the US Senator Lindsey Graham noted that India had informed him of their reduced purchases of Russian oil.

The trailer: The Tamil film industry is set for a Pongal clash. Vijay will appear in Jana Nayagan, releasing on January 9. The film is being billed as his final screen appearance before a full-fledged political career. A day later, Parasakthi releases. The film, produced by a member of the DMK first family, is about anti-Hindi agitations. But this isn’t just about two films clashing on the silver screen, but also a political fight. Arun Janardhanan writes.

📌 Must Read

‘Treasure’ hunt: Residents of a Rajasthan village were ecstatic when the district administration excavated an old earthen pot. Many were convinced they had seen “yellowish” bricks inside, but as the crowd swelled, the police dispersed them with lathis. The pot was secured and kept inside the Treasury office. But days later, an Archaeological Survey of India team would bust the hoax, and two people would be arrested. Read.

Express Adda: ‘I find it difficult to use Union Territory and Jammu & Kashmir in the same sentence’
Recently, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah joined us for a candid chat. He spoke about the statehood issue in J&K, the INDIA bloc and the state of Opposition in India. Read the transcript here.

⏳ And Finally…

‘Grave concern’: There is a new, worrying trend on social media platform X. Anonymous users are prompting Grok AI to manipulate images of women into objectionable content with little guardrails. Who should be held responsible? Elon Musk, who owns X, the engineers behind Grok AI or the users themselves? Could this result in legal action against the platform? We explore all the legal questions.

🎧 I leave you with the latest episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, where we discuss the water contamination deaths in Indore, India’s export challenges and K Kavitha’s fallout with BRS.

That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta

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