India News | 2020 Delhi Riots: HC Grants 10 Days' Interim Bail to UAPA Accused Saleem Khan

New Delhi, Mar 28 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday granted interim bail for 10 days to Saleem Khan, arrested in a UAPA case linked to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 communal riots here, to allow him to arrange funds for his daughter's college fees.

Sharjeel Imam, United Against Hate founder Khalid Saifi and several others, including Umar Khalid, have been booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the February 2020 riots in North-East Delhi which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

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The other accused in the case are Tahir Hussain, Saleem Khan, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Athar Khan, Safoora Zargar, Faizan Khan and Natasha Narwal.

A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur gave the relief to Khan to enable him to arrange funds for paying the fees of his daughter, who is pursuing law from Jamia Hamdard University.

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"We direct release of the appellant (Khan) for 10 days from the date of his release subject to the conditions that were placed on him while last releasing on bail in December 2024," the bench said.

Seeking relief, Khan's counsel submitted that he was granted interim bail on previous occasions and he had never misused the liberty and also surrendered in time.

The plea was opposed by the prosecutor who said Khan was the one who was seen damaging CCTV cameras during the riots.

The court noted that the prosecution has filed a verification report before the trial court affirming Khan's stand that his daughter is pursuing law from Jamia Hamdard University.

It directed the accused to furnish a personal bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety of the like amount.

Khan approached the high court challenging a trial court's March 25 order dismissing his interim bail.

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

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)