Delhi Riots Larger Conspiracy Case: Umar Khalid Calls Delhi Police FIR A 'Joke', Says Evidence Fabricated To Implicate Him

Umar Khalid on Thursday told a Delhi Court that he has spent five years in custody in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case, calling it a “joke of an FIR.”

The submission was made by Senior Advocate Trideep Pais before Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma Courts while opposing framing of charges against Khalid.

The case relates to FIR 59 of 2020 investigated by Delhi Police's special cell. The UAPA case alleges a larger conspiracy in the commission of the 2020 North-East Delhi riots.

Pais said that there was no need of the UAPA FIR which, as per the prosecution, deals with deaths of 51 innocent people, as the deaths are subject matter of other FIRs and are being dealt with separately.

Pais then contended that FIR 59 of 2020 does not have the sanctity of law, let alone the seriousness of offences as alleged by the Delhi Police. He contended that if the charge of conspiracy was genuine, it would have some linkage to other offences committed at the time.

“Each one of the FIRs would have either general linkage or specific linkage. Qua me, and several others like me, there is no linkage. Not even by statements,” Pais said.

The counsel then took the judge through various orders in other riots cases wherein Courts have made critical observations while discharging or acquitting the accused persons.

Referring to one of the orders, Pais said that the bias on the part of the investigating agency is apparent as the prosecution had first decided to implicate a person in the case and then targeted the individual by making false documents which culminated into the chargesheet.

“The bias that I allege, the lack of evidence that I allege qua the same violence and the same dates and the same area where I wasn't even present, please see how Courts have decided the matters and the bias is apparent. What it indicates is that there is a target on somebody's back. Now how to reach the target? By making documentation….” he said.

“You first decide this person has to be implicated in this case...then we will see how it has to be done. Reverse engineering is happening,” Pais added.

The senior counsel further referred to the first supplementary chargesheet filed by Delhi Police in the UAPA case in November 2020, and said that the allegations made therein have no basis- either by witness statements or any recovery. “These are just embellishments by police which have no basis or a document or a witness,” he said.

On Delhi Police's allegations in the chargesheet referring to Khalid as “veteran of sedition” and that he used derogatory words about India in 2016, Pais said that the Delhi Police's chargesheet in the 2016 case clearly states that Umar Khalid did not say the words in question.

“In the 2016 chargesheet, it is clearly said that he didn't sat it. It is not attributed to him. Please see the falsehood trying to be peddled here. It is the same police agency…. They attribute false statements to him here which they don't attribute to him in 2016...This is the manner in which the chargesheet peddles lies,” Pais said.

The matter will now be heard on September 17.

Khalid was arrested in the case by the Delhi Police on September 13, 2020. He was recently denied bail in the case by a division bench of the Delhi High Court on September 02.

He has approached the Supreme Court challenging denial of his bail.

Vide the impugned order, the Delhi High Court also denied bail to co-accused Sharjeel Imam, Athar Khan, Khalid Saifi, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa ur Rehman, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima and Shadab Ahmed. A different bench also denied bail to co accused Tasleem Ahmed.

In its order, the High Court observed that prima facie, the role of Imam and Umar Khalid in the entire conspiracy is “grave”, having delivered inflammatory speeches on communal lines to “instigate mass mobilization of members of the Muslim community.”

It further said that the trial need only progress naturally, as a “hurried trial” will be detrimental both to the accused and the State.

FIR 59 of 2020 was registered by Delhi Police's Special Cell under various offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The other accused in the case are Tahir Hussain, Khalid Saifi, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Athar Khan, Safoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam, Devangana Kalita, Faizan Khan and Natasha Narwal.

In June 2020, Safoora Zargar was given bail on humanitarian grounds on account of her pregnancy. In June 2021, the High Court, on merits, granted bail to three other accused - Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita, and Natasha Narwal.