Umar Khalid completes one year in jail, activists demand Judicial Commission

As former JNU student Umar Khalid, on September 13, completes one year in jail for his alleged role in the Delhi riots conspiracy case, a group of civil society activists on Monday held a public meeting and said his arrest was made on dubious evidence which was tweeted by a BJP leader.

New Delhi: As former JNU student Umar Khalid, on September 13, completes one year in jail for his alleged role in the Delhi riots conspiracy case, a group of civil society activists on Monday held a public meeting and said his arrest was made on dubious evidence which was tweeted by a BJP leader. The activists said that there is a pattern of secular protests being followed by communalized charge-sheets, and the dubious evidence that has been used to rob people like Umar Khalid and many others of their freedom.

Addressing a public meeting in the Press Club of India, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan said, "It's been a year since the arrest of Umar Khalid and two and half years of anti-CAA protests. Those protests were exemplary protests and it had no political involvement, the protests were organised against the law which was not framed according to the Constitution."

The Supreme Court lawyer said Umar Khalid has been charged under the draconian UAPA, the charge sheet is based on a speech that the accused delivered in Amravati (Maharashtra) on January 17, more than a month before the Delhi riots. The organisers of Monday's public meeting showed the video evidence (Umar's Amravati speech) and claimed that there was nothing in the speech that was seditious or meant to instigate violence.

"This was the speech that was distorted and misused by the BJP IT cell to frame Umar. During his recent bail hearing when Delhi Police was asked about the source and authenticity of the footage, the court was told that this was procured from media houses. When the same media houses were asked, they said that they procured from Amit Malviya's tweet that was unauthenticated and doctored," said activist Farah Naqvi.

Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said he felt dejected after the Citizenship Amendment Act and the three farm laws in the Parliament but the protests by the common people against the two laws gave hope as politicians failed to act and the government was not listening to anyone.

Zafarul Islam Khan, former chief of Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC), highlighted how when he was the chairperson of the DMC, they had formed a committee but the police did not co-operate at all during its proceedings. "The report came nonetheless. But the police went to court demanding that this report must not be placed in any court. Why they were afraid of the report, if they had nothing to hide? So we demand a Judicial Commission".