31 October,2025 11:09 AM IST | New Delhi | Agencies
Umar Khalid has been in jail since September 2020. FILE PIC
The Delhi police on Thursday opposed in the Supreme Court bail pleas of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and others in the UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in Delhi, saying that they conspired to strike at the sovereignty and integrity of the country by a "regime change operation" executed under the guise of "peaceful protest".
Arguing that the alleged offences involved a deliberate attempt to destabilise the state which warrant "jail and not bail", the Delhi police, in an affidavit filed on Thursday, said it has collected ocular, documentary and technical evidence against the accused showing their intrinsic, deep-rooted and fervent complicity in engineering nationwide riots on communal lines.
The bail pleas of Khalid, Imam and others are scheduled to come up for hearing before a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria on Friday. Khalid, Imam Gulfisha Fatima, and Meeran Haider were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the erstwhile IPC for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the riots, which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
"The conspiracy hatched, nurtured and executed by the petitioner was to strike at the very heart of the sovereignty and integrity of the country by destroying the communal harmony," the affidavit stated. The Delhi police said the accused conspired to ignite communal tensions during the visit of US President Donald Trump to draw the attention of "international media" and to make the issue of CAA a global one.
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