The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
CPI(M) Deplores Delhi High Court Denial of Bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and Eight Others
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) deplores the Delhi High Court’s denial of bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and eight others. All of them have been under detention for over five years under the draconian UAPA for being linked to the alleged “conspiracy” behind the February 2020 communal riots in Delhi. This is the fifth time that their bail application is being rejected in the last five years. It is all the more disturbing that even the charges against them have not been framed for the last five years. The Delhi High Court’s decision amounts to a travesty of justice, and negation of the principle that “grant of bail is the rule and refusal the exception”.
It is pertinent to note here that while these ten youth languish in jail for over five years without any conviction and even without any proof, BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur, whose incendiary speeches actually fuelled the same Delhi communal riots, are roaming around scot-free. It is also a grave judicial contradiction that while the accused in the Malegaon bomb blasts like Pragya Singh Thakur, Colonel Prasad Purohit and others were acquitted, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others are made to rot in jails for over five years.