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New Delhi: Prominent student activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University researcher Umar Khalid has maintained that the Delhi Police\u2019s allegation of his involvement in \u201csecret conspiratorial meetings\u201d linked to the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots was \u201cfalse.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, the student leader, who has been in judicial custody under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for over five years now, made these submissions before Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai, who is presently hearing arguments on the framing of charges in the larger conspiracy case.<\/p>\n
He asserted that the police misrepresented open and peaceful meetings in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as secret conspiratorial gatherings.<\/p>\n
Umar Khalid\u2019s assertion came a day after the Indian Supreme Court questioned Delhi Police for failing to file a response to the bail pleas of Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima and other Indian Muslim scholars despite repeated chances given to them, media reports said.<\/p>\n
Senior Advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid, argued that the prosecution\u2019s narrative of \u201csecret meetings\u201d did not stand scrutiny when compared with the evidence on record. \u201cOne of the protected witnesses, Sierra, told police that secret meetings were held between January 21 and 23, 2020. But pictures from the meeting were uploaded on the Facebook profile of one of the attendees. How is that secret?\u201d Pais contended, according to the Law Beat portal.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the photographs clearly showed Umar Khalid and girl student Gulfisha Fatima participating in the discussions, which were attended by several activists and students. \u201cThese meetings were held to openly discuss peaceful protests against the CAA. There was neither criminality nor any incitement in those discussions,\u201d Pais submitted.<\/p>\n
He further questioned the Delhi Police\u2019s description of Khalid as a \u201csilent whisper\u201d behind the violence, saying the label was contradicted by video evidence of the student leader\u2019s public speeches. \u201cHe was speaking openly, addressing crowds, denouncing violence. How can a person described as a \u2018silent whisper\u2019 be doing that in front of witnesses?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Pais concluded that Khalid\u2019s continued incarceration was based on a \u201cmisreading of facts and motives\u201d, asserting that his client\u2019s role was confined to lawful, democratic protest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: Prominent student activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University researcher Umar Khalid has maintained that the Delhi Police\u2019s allegation of his involvement in \u201csecret conspiratorial meetings\u201d linked to the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots was \u201cfalse.\u201d According to Kashmir Media Service, the student leader, who has been in judicial custody under the draconian Unlawful Activities …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":186863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-186862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/Umar-Khalid.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186864,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186862\/revisions\/186864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}