Delhi police on Tuesday argued in Delhi High Court that delay in trial could not be the ground for considering bail applications in grave offences as it opposed the bail pleas of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others in the larger conspiracy case related to the 2020 Delhi riots.

In the previous hearing, Khalid and Imam had sought bail on grounds of prolonged incarceration and delay in the commencement of the trial.

Additional solicitor-general Chetan Sharma, representing the Delhi police, urged the high court to take a strict view on the petitions and submitted that the 2020 riots were carried out with “ruthless intensity” and were a “classic case of a clinical and pathological mindset”.

Sharma told a division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur that the conspiracy was planned and executed by forces inimical to India. “The same forces, which have let themselves out on the leash in our neighbouring country,” he added.

Sharma pointed out that Article 21 of the Constitution was also applicable to the injured and the deceased and could not be seen in isolation. He mentioned another Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case where the Supreme Court refused to grant bail to an accused. In its judgment in February last year, the apex court had in Gurwinder Singh vs State of Punjab held that “jail is the rule and bail is the exception” in UAPA cases.

Advocate Ibrahim Sharjeel, who appeared for Imam, told The Telegraph that the same verdict was overruled by the top court in July last year when it granted bail to accused Javed Gulam Nabi Shaikh in the UAPA case linked to counterfeit currency.

The top court had also stressed the accused’s right to a speedy trial and said “overa period of time, the trial courts and the high courts have forgotten a very well-settled principle of law thatbail is not to be withheld as a punishment”.

In many instances, the top court has ruled in favour of the accused while observing that bail was the rule and jail exception. Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia were granted bail in money-laundering cases because their trials had not begun.

Khalid and the other accused in the Delhi riots case had applied for bail citing their long incarceration and parity with other co-accused who were granted bail. Besides Khalid and Imam, the high court is dealing with the bail pleas of Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Shadab Ahmed, Athar Khan, Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima in the case.

A few of the accused, including Asif Iqbal Tanha, are out on bail in the same case.

Countering the submissions, ASG Sharma said parity was not a law and blamed the accused persons for the delay in trial.

Khalid had moved the high court in 2024 seeking bail for the second time after his plea was dismissed by the high court in October 2022.

ASG Sharma on Tuesday said there was no change in the circumstances that would warrant a relief to Khalid.

The arguments remained inconclusive and the high court will continue hearing the matter on Wednesday.

Khalid, Imam and others were booked under the UAPA and provisions of the IPCfor allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which left 53people dead and over 700injured.

The violence erupted during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.