BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla (ANI image)
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to deny bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 north-east Delhi riots case.Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla hailed the verdict as “Satyameva Jayate” and demanded that the Congress must apologize for “defending” the accused.Following the verdict, Poonawalla wrote in a post on X: “Satyameva Jayate… Prima facie allegations are true… Organised not organic, Sponsored not spontaneous. Congress must apologise for its support to tukde tukde gang from Afzal to Umar and Sharjeel.”
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The BJP spokesperson justified the stand that the Delhi riots were not spontaneous. He demanded an apology from the Congress party, alleging that it had supported those accused of playing a key role in the violence.Speaking to reporters, Poonawalla said, “Today we would say Satyamev Jayate. The Supreme Court has denied bail to the poster boys of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, whose role in the Delhi riots and charges against UAPA have been prima facie found to be true. It shows that the Delhi riots were not organic but organised, not spontaneous but sponsored.” He further alleged that Congress had continued to defend the accused despite serious allegations against them. “Unfortunately, the Congress Party continued to defend Sharjeel and Umar. These people who wanted to cut and dissect India into pieces. Today they must apologise… The Congress Party and its ecosystem must apologise today,” he added.The Supreme Court had denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in a case linked to an alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 north-east Delhi riots. However, the court granted bail to Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad. The court observed that Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam stood on a “qualitatively different footing” compared to the other accused, observing that their roles were “central” to the alleged offences. It held that their continued incarceration did not violate constitutional safeguards or override the statutory embargo under applicable laws.The judgment was delivered by a bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria on bail pleas filed by the accused. The apex court had earlier reserved its verdict on December 10 after hearing detailed arguments from all sides.
During the hearings, lawyers appearing for the accused argued that the prolonged incarceration of over five years and delays in the trial warranted bail. They also contended that there was no evidence to show that the accused had instigated violence.Opposing the pleas, the Delhi Police argued that the alleged offences were part of a deliberate and well-orchestrated conspiracy. It claimed the violence was planned to destabilise the state and coincided with the visit of the then US President to India to draw international attention. According to the police, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was used as a “radicalising catalyst” under the guise of peaceful protests.The violence during protests against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) in February 2020 left 53 people dead and over 700 injured. Go to Source
