Student activist Sharjeel Imam told the Delhi High Court on Thursday that he had no "connection" with any of the alleged co-conspirators of the communal riots here in February 2020 and that his public speeches repeatedly called for non-violence.
Imam said he has been in custody for more than four years and requested a bench headed by Justice Navin Chawla to grant him bail in the "larger conspiracy" case under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Umar Khalid, Imam and several others have been booked under the UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the February 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
"There are absolutely no chats between me and any of the co-conspirators. No chats, no calls with any of the co-conspirators in the case. Yet they rely on my chats to implicate me. There is nothing in my chats to remotely suggest that I intended to incite any violence.... I am the only one with no connection with anybody at all," Imam's counsel argued before the bench, also comprising Justice Shalinder Kaur.
"There is no call for violence in any of my speeches. There are repeated calls for non-violence," he emphasised.
It was also said that Imam had raised the protest site at Shaheen Bagh, which remained non-violent throughout, and "distanced" himself from the site in January, fearing violence.
Imam's counsel further said his client had left Delhi in the middle of January 2020 and was already in custody after his arrest by the Delhi Police on January 28 in connection with another FIR when the February 2020 meeting of the co-accused persons took place to "change the nature of protests" on account of the visit of then US president Donald Trump. Violence broke out later that month.
Imam's arrest in the case on August 25, 2020, the lawyer said, was based only on belated witness statements recorded to implicate him.
The bench questioned Imam's counsel if his reference to "Ghazwa-e-Hind", according to the statement of a witness, in one of his interactions with the public was not to instigate violence.
"The statement was made six months later just to implicate me. What I said is in the open," the lawyer replied.
"He has remained in jail for five years. He is a student. He had no running with the law in this set of cases," the lawyer said.
The court was also informed that Imam was on bail in four other cases registered against him over alleged inflammatory speeches.
The lawyer further said that at a meeting that Imam attended with Khalid in December 2019, there was "absolutely nothing on violence", but a general discussion on "how everyone has to come together" in the face of the citizenship law.
"There is a rich history of chakka jam being used as an effective method of protest in the country pre and post independence. There was no reference to any violence," he said.
Imam also requested the court to consider that other co-accused like Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal are already on bail in the case.
The bail pleas by other co-accused -- Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima and others -- are pending in the high court since 2022 and were heard by different benches from time to time.
Khalid's bail plea is also pending in the court.
The matter would be heard next on December 20.
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