ENSURE SPEEDY TRIAL FOR KHALID, IMAM AFTER DENIAL OF BAIL

UMAR Khalid suffered a major setback as he lost his much-anticipated bail plea in the Supreme Court in the 2020 Delhi riots case, amid a high-decibel international campaign to free him.

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The bench also barred him and another activist Sharjeel Imam, both 37, from filing a fresh appeal for a year. It, however, released five others on conditional bail. All of them had been arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and are facing trial for the alleged ‘plot’ they hatched ahead of the riots in the wake of widespread protests against the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act. The bench observed that the material before them showed a central and formative role of Khalid and Imam, and “involvement in the level of planning, mobilisation and strategic direction extending beyond episodic and localised acts”. It attrac