"Am I Just An Anniversary Event": Umar Khalid Asks
New Delhi: Political activist Umar Khalid has crossed four years and three months in jail in connection with Delhi riot case. On December 6, he made a bail plea for second time before the Delhi High Court citing on the grounds of long period of incarceration without trial and urging parity since Khalid’s co-accused in the case were already granted bail.
Poet and journalist Kaushik Raj on social media recounted his recent meeting with Khalid in jail. Taking to X, Raj shared what Khalid asked him: “Am I just an anniversary event to the people? Why don’t they wake up with the thought of my persecution and sleep with it? Why are they not troubled with the fact that anybody can be put behind bars for years without trial?”
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“Am I just an anniversary event to the people? Why don’t they wake up with the thought of my persecution and sleep with it? Why are they not troubled with the fact that anybody can be put behind bars for years without trial?” Umar Khalid asked me today. Do we have the answers? pic.twitter.com/hwYKp60KL6
— Kaushik Raj (@kaushikrj6) December 12, 2024
Delhi Police’s special cell arrested Khalid under the harsh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on September 14, 2020. He was alleged to be a key conspirator in the February 2020 north-east Delhi riots. In the riot 53 people killed, mostly Muslims. Among the 18 people charged in the case, 16 are Muslim.
The 2020 Delhi riots case which nears to five years is currently at the stage of arguments on charge and trial will begin once arguments are composed. The case against Khalid is majorly based on a speech he gave in Amravati, Maharashtra on February 17, 2020, a week before riot broke out in Delhi.
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In all these years, since his arrest, Khalid was allowed to leave jail for a week to attend his sister’s wedding in December 2022. Khalid’s request for bail has been repeatedly rejected in multiple courts though the Supreme Court stated that ‘bail is the rule and jail is the exception’ is applicable to offences even under special statutes like UAPA. In August this year, while giving a bail to a man accused under the anti-terror law a bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih argued that if courts start denying bail in legitimate cases, it will be a violation of fundamental rights.
