Delhi High Court Rejects Bail Pleas of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and Seven Others in 2020 Delhi Riots Case

New Delhi: In a significant development in the 2020 Delhi riots case, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday denied bail to former JNU student leaders Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, along with seven other accused.

The nine individuals have been in detention since 2020, and the trial in the high-profile case has yet to commence. The decision was delivered by a two-judge bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, which had reserved judgment on 9 July. The bail pleas, pending since 2022, had previously been heard by multiple benches of the high court.

The accused facing bail denial include Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi, and Gulfisha Fatima. They are charged under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, following an FIR filed by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell.

The allegations stem from violent clashes that erupted in Northeast Delhi on 23 February 2020 during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which left at least 53 people dead and hundreds injured. Delhi Police and the Crime Branch have alleged that the unrest was part of a coordinated plot allegedly orchestrated by Khalid, tracing its roots back to anti-CAA and NRC demonstrations in 2019.

Sharjeel Imam was first detained in August 2020, while Khalid and other co-accused were later added to the formal charges. Khalid had also sought relief from the Supreme Court between May 2023 and January 2024, but withdrew his application citing “altered circumstances” before returning to the trial court and filing a fresh petition in February 2025.