INDIA: Prime conspirators Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi, who faced charges relating to stone-pelting and arson during the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi, were discharged on Saturday.
The 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 (of the Karkardooma Courts).”
Both accused were granted bail in the stone-pelting case but are now in jail in a different case.
The student leaders were booked under the anti-terrorist law UAPA, and they were in judicial custody. However, due to a lack of substantial evidence, they were discharged.
The investigation of the case was later transferred to the Crime Branch. The Delhi High Court in October rejected the bail plea of Khalid in a UAPA case related to the riots in the capital because it took the lives of 53 people and caused over 700 serious injuries.
In the meantime, Khalid’s father said, “The battle has been quite tough, but we are positive about getting justice. My son has been quite tough and has always consoled us whenever we visit him. Meeting him was very difficult because of the charges levied against him.”
Moreover, in additional sessions, Judge Vinod Yadav had said, “I find absolutely no substance in the argument of learned special prosecutor that in a case of criminal conspiracy, the disclosure statement of a co-accused can be read against another co-accused, merely on the ground that pursuant thereto the CDRs (call data records) of a co-accused were unearthed, which led to the recovery of the fact of a meeting dated 08.01.2020.”
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