Umar Khalid Discharged In Stone-Throwing Case Linked To 2020 Delhi Riots

New Delhi:

A Delhi court today discharged  former JNU students’ union leader Umar Khalid in a case linked to 2020 Delhi riots.

Along with Umar Khalid, another student leader Khalid Saifi was also discharged by the Karkardooma court in Delhi.

The two were granted bail in a stone-throwing case in Delhi’s Chandbagh, but are in jail in a different case.

The student leaders have been charged under anti-terrorist law UAPA and are currently in judicial custody.

Khalid and Saifi were discharged due to lack of substanial evidence in a stone-throwing case in Chandbagh, when a mob had gathered near police deployment.

Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey confirmed that Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi were discharged in the matter by the court of Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala.

The Karawal Nagar police station had registered an FIR against both accused along with others under various provisions of the IPC, including rioting and criminal conspiracy along with the sections of the Arms Act and the Prevention of Damage to Property Act.

The investigation of the case was later transferred to the Crime Branch.

The Delhi High Court in October refused to grant bail to Umar Khalid in a UAPA case related to the riots in the capital in which 53 people were killed and over 700 injured.

The high court said “there is no merit in the bail plea.”

Umar Khalid was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020 and has denied any “criminal role”  in the violence or any “conspiratorial connect” with any other accused in the matter.