Umar Khalid has now spent over 1,400 days behind bars without a trial. His bail application has been rescheduled 14 times in the Supreme Court during this period. During his confinement at Delhi’s Tihar Jail, he has been immersing himself in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” and Manoj Mitta’s “Caste Pride: Battles of Equality in Hindu India”, as he awaits bail and justice.
“His spirits are still high, though the delays dampen them once in a while. The inordinate delays have made the situation extremely frustrating,” Banojyotsna Lahiri, Khalid’s partner, told The Telegraph Online on Monday.
“We don’t see justice in sight. It is a difficult situation to be in.”
Lahiri had visited Umar at Tihar last week. He is allowed visitors once a week.
Despite being in jail for 1,402 days, Khalid’s trial is yet to begin.
“Jail is not a nice place; nobody should be there. However, Tihar is relatively better managed than other prisons. The guards are not that hostile,” she said.
“He is reading Dostoevsky and Manoj Mitta. His reading habits are such. He mixes fiction with non-fiction,” Lahiri said.
Khalid was arrested by Delhi police in September 2020, on charges of being a “key conspirator” in the 2020 Delhi riots, which resulted in 53 deaths following extensive protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Khalid was the last of 20 individuals arrested, including Sharjeel Imam, a prominent figure in the Shaheen Bagh protests against the citizenship law, which had been formulated ahead of the Lok Sabha elections by the Narendra Modi government.
The Delhi police filed two cases against Umar; one was dropped, but in the other, he has yet to be charge-sheeted. Khalid has been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a law that makes obtaining bail exceedingly difficult, in addition to sedition and 18 other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Courts, from the lower courts to the Supreme Court, have consistently denied him bail. Khalid first applied for bail before the sessions court in July 2021. The application was heard the following month. After eight months of hearings, the sessions court denied him bail on March 24, 2022. A sessions court has rejected his bail twice, and the Delhi High Court once. His bail petition before the Supreme Court has been adjourned 14 times.
