The Islamo-leftist cabal intermittently outrages over the fact that the 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots accused mastermind Umar Khalid is languishing in Tihar Jail for over five years now. They count days, write glorifying and sympathy-evoking articles, solicit support from US politicians, hold seminars, and cry hoarse on social media. The fresh round of outrage in support for Umar Khalid follows the grant of three-week interim bail to Swatantra Bhardwaj in the alleged assault case against Hinduphobic CJP-linked activist Nishu Azad’s father, Sanjay Azad.
Court grants interim bail to Swatantra Bhardwaj
A Delhi court granted three-week interim bail to influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj in connection with an alleged assault on the Hinduphobic CJP activist Nishu Azad’s father and Ambedkarite ‘activist’ Sanjay Azad during the CJP-led protests at Jantar Mantar in June. Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler of Patiala House Court passed the order.
Bhardwaj had approached the court seeking regular bail, but the court granted him interim bail instead. The development came a day after the court decided to hold in-camera proceedings after being informed that two FIRs had been registered against Bhardwaj under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the POCSO Act.
As reported earlier, the matter gained traction after a video podcast in which Bhardwaj allegedly spoke about assaulting Sanjay Azad during the Jantar Mantar protest went viral. He later denied deliberately hitting Sanjay Azad, and said that he acted in self-defence.
The Delhi Police has also rejected the claims of a serious head injury to Sanjay Azad and said that he suffered a simple head injury.
Islamo-leftists compare the cases of Swatantra Bhardwaj and Umar Khalid, in the latest round of outrage over Khalid’s prolonged incarceration
As soon as the news came about interim bail grant to self-declared Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj, the Islamo-leftist coterie framed the development as proof of some sort of ‘two-track’ justice. They contrasted the cases of Swatantra Bhardwaj and 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots mastermind Umar Khalid, who is lodged in Tihar Jail for six years.
One leftist X user, Rakhi Tripathi, wrote, “India. Both Indians. Different names. Different justice. One is Umar Khalid, a PhD scholar from JNU who talks about democracy and has spent nearly six years behind bars awaiting trial. The other is Swatantra Bharadwaj,a street thug who publicly boasts about violence, about cracking someone’s head open, and speaks with the confidence of political protection. One remains behind bars. The other boasts of violence openly. Look at their names. There are many Umar behind bars, and many Swatantra who thrive on state-sponsored impunity. This is the real divide we have created among India’s youth.”
One Islamist emphasised that ‘PhD scholar’ Umar Khalid is in jail without trial while a “goon” Swatantra Bhardwaj gets quick bail, as if Khalid has been booked not for his alleged role in orchestrating the Delhi Riots but for being a PhD scholar.
The X user also insinuated that Umar Khalid is rotting in jail because of his Muslim identity, even though Khalid identifies as an atheist as per his own admission.
“PhD scholar Umar Khalid has been in jail for six year without trial. Goon Swatantra Bhardwaj got bail within 10 days. And people say what’s in a name?” he wrote.
Meanwhile, leftist ‘journalist’ Tavleen Singh wrote, “What kind of justice system do we have that allows a thug who confessed to murder to be given bail. And keeps Umar Khalid not convicted of any crime in jail for six years. #justiceforumarkhalid.”
Leftist propagandist Kaushik Raj, who is named in court for helping Umar Khalid, wrote,“Umar Khalid is in jail since 6 years while goons like Swatantra Bhardwaj who openly accept their role in violence are free to roam.”
Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, accused the judiciary of being prejudiced, and wrote, “Bail for Bharadwaj, Jail for Umar. Judiciary is blinded by prejudice.”
Another one wrote, “Gems of the Indian Judiciary Scholar Umar Khalid has been in prison for nearly six years without trial and continues to be denied bail. Meanwhile, Swatantra Bharadwaj, who publicly admitted on a live broadcast to an attempted murder, has been granted bail. What a striking contrast in the application of justice.”
Social media is replete with Islamo-leftists crying hoarse about Bhardwaj’s bail and drawing false equivalence between his and Umar Khalid’s case. In fact, the same narrative has been echoed from Umar Khalid’s own Facebook page, which posted, “Six years behind bars without a trial. Ten days in custody, followed by three weeks of interim bail. On the same day that news broke of Swatantra Bhardwaj being granted three weeks of interim bail, the reminder came again: Umar Khalid has spent six years in prison without a trial.”
The “bail to Swatantra Bhardwaj, jail to Umar Khalid” comparison does not hold
Of the many differences in the cases of Swatantra Bhardwaj and Umar Khalid, the biggest is that Bhardwaj faces ordinary BNS hurt or restraint charges in addition to later-added SC/ST and a separate POCSO case. Bail is the rule, the jail the exception.
Courts often grant interim or regular bail in such cases after the interrogation is over and there is no serious flight risk, subject to conditions.
Umar Khalid, on the contrary, is charged under the stringent UAPA in the 2020
What creates a statutory bar is Section 43D(5), which says that bail is not granted if the court finds the allegations prima facie true. Be it Supreme Court, Delhi High Court or trial courts, all have repeatedly emphasized that a prima facie case exists against Khalid as both an ideological and organizational driver.
The case of a person accused of allegedly assaulting another individual is not comparable the case of a person accused of masterminding a full-fledged rioting the resulted in loss of lives and widespread damage to public property.
Not downplaying the severity of the allegations against Swatantra Bhardwaj, but he, unlike Umar Khalid, is not an accused mastermind of a riot. It is very much possible that the trial in Bhardwaj’s case proceeds, he is found guilty of the pressed charges and punished accordingly, or is acquitted.
Mere interim bail does not mean that the court is favouring a supposed Hindutva aligned or pro-BJP figure, while those like Umar Khalid, who owe their claim to fame to hating on and peddling propaganda against the BJP-led ruling dispensation, are deliberately denied bail.
By this juxtaposition, the Islamo-leftist cabal is essentially casting aspersions on the integrity of the Delhi courts, and by extension, the Indian judiciary.
The delays in Umar Khalid’s case and his prolonged incarceration without trial are not the State’s doing, rather, it is largely the outcome of his own legal team’s alleged forum shopping manoeuvers.
Umar Khalid’s role in Delhi Riots and the subsequent prolonged incarceration
It must be recalled that on 14th September 2020, Umar Khalid, former JNU student and son of an ex-SIMI member, was arrested for his role in the Delhi anti-Hindu riots that broke out on the 24th of February. He, along with others, was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA and other relevant provisions of the IPC for being the masterminds of the riots.
Umar Khalid is accused of mobilising the Muslims to run riots, block roads, and harass the public by asserting that the new law was ‘against Muslims’ and had also planned to involve women and children in the ‘Chakka Jam’ amid the visit of US President Trump to India.
He had allegedly met the former AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain and another accused, Khalid Saifi, to assure logistical support during the riots through his contacts in the PFI. According to the reports, the agencies have been watching and warning about the nexus between Maoists, whose front organisation Khalid is aligned with, and hardline Islamists allegedly represented by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Welfare Party of India, and the banned outfit SIMI. He had also repeated Pakistani talking points in Kashmir and claimed that the Indian Union territory was occupied by Indian forces.
Umar Khalid’s prolonged incarceration, for which Islamo-leftists blame the Modi government and even the judiciary, are also his own doing.
As per the timeline traced by OpIndia, it is evident that after the exit of Justice Aniruddha Bose, Umar Khalid and his lawyers – Kapil Sibal to be precise – demanded adjournments ad nauseam till the petitions were withdrawn. Further, it is evident that Prashant Bhushan also attempted to ensure that the case was listed before the CJI, a proposal struck down by Justice Bela Trivedi. This poses an important question of whether Kapil Sibal was “trying his luck” at forum shopping and having failed at that, withdrew his petition from the Supreme Court.
OpIndia’s analysis of the sequence of events in the Umar Khalid case suggests that there were only two “changes in circumstances” that could have led to the decision by Umar Khalid – one is the change in judge, the other is a crucial change/clarification of the law On the 7th of January 2024, in a different matter, the Supreme Court clarified that in UAPA cases, jail is the norm and bail is the exception – Umar Khalid and other accused have been arguing in court that according to the law, jail is the exception and bail is the norm as on the 7th of January 2024, in a different matter, the Supreme Court clarified that in UAPA cases, jail is the norm and bail is the exception – Umar Khalid and other accused have been arguing in court that according to the law, jail is the exception and bail is the norm.
OpIndia has reported earlier that out of the 14 adjournments in 2023 and 2024, 7 delays and adjournments were sought by Umar Khalid himself. It therefore becomes evident that the withdrawal was certainly not because of the famed “delay” in hearing. While the Islamo-leftist ecosystem continues to cry ‘injustice’, it is the alleged failed forum shopping attempts of the accused’s lawyer that have Khalid rotting in jail for so long.
The insinuation that Umar Khalid has been denied a fair trial and bail due to his Muslim identity, although he identifies as an atheist, amounts to directly accusing the judiciary of harbouring biases against individuals based on their religious identities or political leanings, and that these biases drive their denial of bail and fair trial to some and quick relief to others.
The same Islamo-leftist cabal that treats Umar Khalid as a hero and an unconvicted political prisoner, whose mere presence in prison is the ‘travesty of justice’, ‘death of democracy’, ‘Musalman khatre main’, and what not, treat Swatantra Bhardwaj’s podcast wherein he made boastful claims, as an irrefutable confession.
Islamo-leftists know that UAPA is a strict anti-terror legislation, and easy bail has not been a norm in such cases, perhaps, this is the reason, they call the UAPA a ‘draconian law’, since their ideological brethren do not get to indulge in alleged anti-national activities, rioting and then casually get bail to resume their acts and become heroes.
Conclusion
Clearly, the ideological leanings and religion of the individual drive the broader presumption of innocence. While this identity-first adjudication can embellish articles and social media narratives, the courts consider the statute and actual charges when deciding who gets bail and who doesn’t. A rioting conspiracy and an ordinary hurt cannot be equated just because Umar Khalid is the blue-eyed boy of Islamo-leftists.
The gravity and the scale of the crimes Umar Khalid and Swatantra Bhardwaj are accused of vary dramatically; comparing the two cases can be an appealing punchline, but it remains preposterous.
