India
Court sends Umar Khalid to judicial custody till October 22 in UAPA case
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday sent former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid to judicial custody till October 22.
Umar was arrested on the night of September 13 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a case related to the “communal violence” in northeast Delhi in February.
Besides this, the student leader has also been charged with “sedition and 18 other sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting. “
According to a report by Indian Express, Delhi police had not arrested Khalid before but summoned him for “interrogation” several times, as police claimed in various riots-related FIRs and charge sheets that “Khalid was a prime conspirator”.
Initially, police had alleged – in two chargesheets filed in cases relating to FIR 65/2020 and FIR 101/2020 – that Khalid (along with former city councillor Tahir Hussain and community activist Khalid Saifi) had been attempting to “trigger violence” in northeast Delhi during US President Donald Trump’s visit to India, from the time he participated in a meeting on January 8.
He was then taken into formal custody after being summoned to the police station for interrogation.
At the end of his police custody, Khalid was presented before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat through video conferencing. Police have not sought further custody of him.
In the FIR, police has claimed that the communal violence was a “premeditated conspiracy” which was allegedly hatched by Khalid and two others.
A video released on social media, recorded by Khalid, a few days before his arrest, speaks about the “false narrative” had been created against him by using his Amravati speech selectively, where he also said that the BJP government is “targeting those who opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act”.
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