The Delhi High Court on March 24 vacated its earlier stay order on the trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in a case related to the anti-Hindu riot in northeast Delhi in February last year.
This decision effectively means that the Delhi High Court has cleared the decks for the trial of several accused in the case, including notorious radical Islamist Umar Khalid, Pinjra Tod members and far-left ‘activists’ Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, JNU student Sharjeel Imam and former Aam Aadmi Party councilor Tahir Hussain, self-proclaimed activist Khalid Saifi, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar and Meeran Haider, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The High Court decision has come after the Delhi trial court directed Delhi police to provide hard copies of the chargesheet to 15 accused, who have been charged under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the north-east Delhi riots.
The High Court had on November 10, 2020, stayed the proceedings in the case after the Delhi Police had filed an appeal against a trial court’s order.
Earlier, the Delhi Police had filed a charge-sheet before the Delhi court in connection with the riots case. The Delhi police had invoked various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) along with the Indian Penal Code in the case. The case emanates from FIR No. 59, which was lodged by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch on March 6, 2020.
The Delhi Police had filed over 750 FIRs in connection with the Delhi riots cases against offences such as giving communally insinuating speeches, creating religious hatred, looting, arson, destroying public and private property, causing injury and murder among others. It had named 15 prime accused in the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots case.
In the FIR, the Delhi Police had alleged that the communal riot was a pre-planned and the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) prior to that had created a communally-charged atmosphere that led to the communal clashes in February.
The Delhi Police has arrested over 20 accused persons including former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students and Jamia Millia Islamia students in this particular case on the charges of instigating Muslim mobs to unleash terror on the streets of the national capital.