Politics

Umar Khalid bail hearing: Jaffrabad violence was pre-planned by Umar Khalid and others, police tells court

“There is incitement to violence and silence. I will show from the record why this is a conspiracy of silence. It is my contention which I will make good by their conduct,” the prosecution told the court.

On Wednesday, a Delhi court resumed hearing former JNU student Umar Khalid’s bail plea, arrested for allegedly planning and playing a vital role in the Delhi Riots in 2019. Special Public Prosecutor(SSP) Amit Prasad appeared on behalf of the Delhi Police and presented more evidence to dismiss Khalid’s bail plea before Additional Sessions Judge(ASJ) Amitabh Rawat on Wednesday. 

Urging to dismiss Khalid’s bail plea, Amit Prasad read out a statement of a witness who had confirmed Umar saying,” Sarkar musalmano ke khilaaf hai, bhashan se kaam nahi chalega, khoon bahana padega”, in one of the meetings that he participated in on January 23. To this, Umar Khalid told the Court that he sent only five messages in the group.

Furthermore, the Prosecutor produced Whatsapp chats of the groups of Umar Khalid wherein one message talks about shedding blood. Reading out the aforementioned portion of the WhatsApp chat, Prasad told the court,” Aag lagwane ki poori tayyari hai” (We have everything we need to ignite a fire).” The prosecutor also said that women were organised together and told to gather sticks and chilli powder, and questioned the intentions of the protests with such items. 

The prosecutor further maintained that BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s name was used by the accused to “build a narrative” and carefully argued that the Jaffrabad violence was pre-planned much before Kapil Mishra’s speeches. “There was a proposal to incite violence as on 17th February 2020 which is the time when you draw a narrative that Kapil Mishra came there…Where was Kapil Mishra then? He has not even surfaced anywhere and your proposal to incite violence has surfaced,” Prasad said, implying that drawing the BJP leader’s name is an attempt to deflect blame of the conspiracy behind the riots. 

Since the SSP’s arguments were largely based on WhatsApp chats, ASJ Rawat said that one common thread he noticed in the arguments made by the SPP was that “when somebody has done something and he has said something in the group then you say they have said something nasty but when they don’t, you say they are so clever.” Khalid along and others accused have denied all allegations by the prosecution in this case. 

The communal clashes between two opposing factions over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that erupted in Northeast Delhi in February 2019 left at least 53 people dead and 200 injured.

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