Umar Khalid’s 10-day police custody ended on Thursday.
Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid, who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA, has been placed in pre-trial detention until October 22 by a Delhi court on Thursday. He was filed in court after his 10-day police custody ended Thursday.
The student leader was arrested on the night of September 13 under the UAPA for his alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots. He was detained by a special cell of the Delhi police after 11 hours of interrogation. He was also charged with sedition and 18 other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which includes murder and attempted murder.
According to Bar and Bench, the Prosecutor’s Office argued that the Delhi riots were part of “a deep-rooted and premeditated conspiracy” that was hatched by Khalid and his associates from various organizations.
Delhi police, on his charge sheet, claimed that Khalid made provocative speeches at various locations that prompted people to take to the streets during the visit of US President Donald Trump in February to have the propaganda of persecuted minorities in India get international coverage.
Umar was interrogated for a couple of hours by the Delhi Police Crimes Division on 2 September in connection with the riots. He was also questioned by the Delhi Police Special Cell about an alleged conspiracy behind the riots. His mobile phone was also seized. While seeking custody, Delhi police claimed that 40GB of data was extracted from Khalid’s mobile phone and wanted to question him about the documents that were 11 lakh pages long.
Communal clashes erupted in northeast Delhi when violence between supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and those against it spiraled out of control on 24 February. At least 53 people died in the violence and 200 were injured. Two policemen were killed and 108 policemen were injured during the attempt to prevent violence.
Delhi police filed a 17,000-page charge sheet on September 16 and named 15 people as defendants on the charge sheet. All of the defendants have been registered under the UAPA. However, she does not name Khalid.
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