2020 Delhi riots case: Umar Khalid files review plea against verdict refusing bail

New Delhi: Former JNU student and activist Umar Khalid has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against a verdict that declined him bail after finding that there were reasonable grounds to believe the allegations levelled against him in connection with the conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal or Khalid urged a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria to list the review petition in open court.

Sibal contended that the matter is coming up for consideration before the judges in chambers on April 16. He said an application has been moved for an open-court hearing.

The bench said, "We will look into the papers. If required, we will take a call on it."

As per the Supreme Court's rules, review petitions are considered by judges, who delivered a judgment or passed an order, in chambers to remedy an apparent error or a resultant grave injustice that resulted from its decision.

On January 5, the court refused to grant bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the alleged larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 Delhi riots.

The court had said Khalid and Imam stood on a qualitatively different footing as compared to the other accused and ordered the release of five other co-accused after drawing a clear distinction in their alleged roles.

The other accused in the case are Gulfisha Fatima, Meera Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed.