2020 riots: Being part of WhatsApp groups doesn't show criminality, Umar Khalid to Delhi High Court

New Delhi: Activist Umar Khalid on Thursday argued in the Delhi High Court that his mere presence in WhatsApp groups was not enough to attribute any criminality to him and the police equated staging protests and attending meetings with terror.

Senior advocate Trideep Pais, while representing Khalid, argued before a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur and sought bail for his client in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case related to the February 2020 riots. Pais opposed the prosecution's claim that Khalid created "communal" groups on WhatsApp to mobilise and instigate students and to plan a "disruptive" chakka jam (blockades), saying he was not even an active member of these groups.

"I have been added to the groups. I have not posted a single message. I am not even chatting. I have been roped in by somebody. Merely being in a group is not an indicator of any criminal wrong," argued Pais, responding to the police's submissions.

"(Offences under) UAPA are not made out against me. They are equating protest and attending a meeting to terror," he added.

Pais said co-accused Devangana Kalita and others were also part of such groups and faced "far more serious allegations" in the violence but were granted bail in the case.

He said nothing was recovered from Khalid aside from the fact that there was "nothing criminal about what he said" in his speeches and the statements of protected witnesses against him were hearsay.

Pais underlined his client's incarceration saying Khalid had spent 4.5 years in jail and the delay in trial was a ground to release him on bail.

"(There are) 800 witnesses and (case pending since) five years. Charges are yet to be framed. We can quibble over who is at fault ..but (the trial court record shows) that while the others did not wish to go on with their arguments on charge, I wanted to. The prosecution itself moved the high court and obtained a stay for six months stating that they were unwilling to give hard copies of documents," he said.

Khalid, who was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020, challenged a trial court order refusing to grant him bail in the case for the second time.

Aside from Khalid, several others were booked in the case of the February 2020 riots, which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence erupted during the protests against the CAA and NRC.

Pais previously questioned the “basis” on which the city police made him an accused in the UAPA case when no criminality was alleged against many others who allegedly attended the supposed conspiratorial meetings.

Delhi Police opposed the bail plea, saying the speeches by Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others created a sense of fear after a common reference to CAA-NRC, Babri mosque, triple talaq and Kashmir.

It argued that statements of several protected witnesses establish that the accused persons were not "innocent bystanders" who merely organised protest sites, but planned to cause violence through WhatsApp groups, resulting in registration of 751 FIRs related to the riots.

Bail pleas by other co-accused – including Sharjeel Imam, are pending in high court.

The matter would be heard on March 4.