Thread by @barandbench

Delhi High Court will continue to hear today the appeal filed by former JNU student Umar Khalid seeking bail in the Delhi Riots larger conspiracy case.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Delhi Police had arrested Khalid in September 2020 for his alleged involvement in the riots in North-east Delhi.
He has been charged with criminal conspiracy as well as UAPA. A special court had denied him bail in March, 2022.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

The appeal will be heard by a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar which is likely to sit specially for this matter at 2:15pm.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

hearing starts.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Sr Adv Trideep Pais appears for Khalid.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: Several of the acts alleged or incident cited against me were not even qualifying as terror. They were just meeting of people or protest. I did not take part in any violent protest nor is there any material to suggest that.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: I have been part of two WhatsApp groups. But even there i have not been accused of sending any violent message.

Pais: The material against me is ex post facto. Ex post facto registration of FIRs and ex post facto arrests.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The question is is a mere statement enough to bring the charge of UAPA. Secondly whether the protest itself can be terror. Chargesheet has very flowery allegations against me.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: I am contending that Sec 34D(3) of UAPA does not apply against me. Triple test applies to me.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: There is a leap of faith by the special judge which has no basis in fact or in law.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: They are saying there was a pre-planned blocking of roads, chakkajam and protests at 23 locations.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: All that the order of special judge seems to get is the role of people planning chakka jam in Delhi. He attributes it to be and equates it to terrorist act. This is the only finding.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The protests in Delhi against CAA have been called a terrorist act.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The judge says these are acts threatening the unity and integrity of India. Who are we pointing this at? These are the people who said CAA is discriminatory they want to be part of India.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: Now refers to definition of terror act.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The protests were against an unjust law. They were not targeting or perpetrating violence in the matter in which Sec 15 contemplates.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now refers to a judgement to explain the meanign of terrorist.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

A terrorist activity does not merely arise by causing disturbance of law and order or public order: Pais reads from the order.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Every terrorist may be a criminal but not every criminal is a terrorist. TADA cannot be invoked just to set in more stringent provisions: Pais further reads the judgment.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: A riots in a normal sense or a protest gone wrong or a violence that follows police lathicharge or fights between two communities cannot automatically be given this...

Pais now refers to Kartar Singh v State of Punjab judgment.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: This judgment upheld the constitutional validity of TADA.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The raison d'etre of the the protest was a cry to belong to India. It reinforced the sovereignty of country and they were against a law that did not allow them to belong to this country.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: Is it their case that the protests instilled a sense of fear in the minds of the people.
Pais: No my lord. We also need to see who the victims are. They are the family members of people who named here.

J Mridul: Is it your case that all those who participated in the protests cannot fall in the category of the victims?
Pais: Mostly they are the victims.

J Mridul: It can be argued that they were the people in whose minds the sense of fear and insecurity was instilled.

J Mridul: We want you to answer whether a sense of fear and insecurity was instilled in the minds of the people of the area during and aftermath of the protests or not.

J Mridul: Is it the prosecution's case that a sense of fear and insecurity was instilled in the people of the area or not?

Pais: There is no material to show that. This chargesheet does not reflect it. Qua me absolutely not.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: During and after the riots whether a sense of fear and insecurity instilled in anybody? Either the protestors or the locals.

Pais: Yes, there was. But in the people protesting.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now continues reading the judgment.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: You are saying that although a sense of insecurity was instilled during and in aftermath of the protests but you had nothing to do with it.
Pais: the chargesheet does not say so.

J Mridul: They have charged you with creating fear?
Pais: Yes.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: We agree with you that even targeted murder can instill insecurity.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: As we understand it is in two parts. One the alleged incident can instill this fear. This can be a general sense which in urdu is expressed as Khauf. As far as that is concerned there are no two opinions that it was there during the riots.

Pais: We should not fall into the trap of interpreting everything as terror is what I am saying.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now refers to the supplementary chargesheet by Delhi Police against Khalid.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The chargesheet says Umar Khalid was Sharjeel Imam's mentor and had a special interest in him. It says he was the perfect person Khalid was looking for.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: I will highlight the chargesheet and submit to your lordships that attribute communal character, all these are lines which are just put in to create hype.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: It is verbose. I agree with you.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: Not a single message was sent by me to this group that they say was created by Sharjeel Imam.
J Mridul: There was a group called Muslim students of JNU?
Pais: Yes.

Pais: They say the group was formed on direction of Umar Khalid. This is without any substance. There is no statement by anybody that I directed him to create this group. There is no communication between me and him. At best we have been in just one meeting.

Pais: Not a whisper of me deleted or formatted my chats. Even Imam's phone has been taken.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: Please see what Sharjeel Imam has to say about this.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now reads the chats.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: He doesn't say it was started on directions of Umar Khalid.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now refers to the lower court's order which denied bail to Khalid.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: A membership of the group has been made an offence in the order. I have not sent a single message on the group.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: There are judgments that say the group administrator cannot be held accountable for offence committed by a member. Here membership has been made an offence.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: There is no connection between me and Sharjeel Imam. That connection has been drawn through this WhatsApp group.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: A protest called by a group named United Against Hate is attended by Imam. I am from this group.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: It says Sharjeel Imam was introduced to Professor Yogendra Yadav by me.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais is now referring to allegations against Khalid in relation to Jantar Mantar protests.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: I am not even part of group called Core Members of Muslim Students of JNU.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: In any event it is not an offence.
Pais: Yes. This is a theme that is being created.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: They are trying to create an image that I am atheist or this or that.
J Mridul: Even being an atheist is not an offence.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: There is a mantra to keep repeating things. Why does the jduge refers to me participating in the meeting with Yogender Yadav and others as a crime.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: This is the meeting that the prosecution relies upon to say there was a conspiracy.

Pais: They make it look like a conspiracy. Imam had posted this on whatsapp group.

Pais: It names several people. They say it was decided in the meeting to execute the earlier agreed conspiracy of chakkajam.
#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: They say it was agreed that people of United against hate, Swaraj Abhiyan and other left minded parties will support each other. There is a photo of the meeting where they have mentioned the names as well. Half of them are not even accused.

Pais now refers to Sec 161 statement of Tahira Dawood.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The FIR is of march 6. The meeting is of December 8.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais' instructing counsel reads the statement.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

The statement says the object of the Whatsapp group was to promote the protests and make the Muslim students aware about CAA.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: No Sec 164 statement of this witness is there. Please see the order now.
Pais reads the lower court's order.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: The statement says on asking of Yogendra Yadav, Sharjeel Imam said I will support chakka jam. The statement does not give me a role. The impugned order talks about instructions of Umar Khalid and Yogender yadav.

Pais: Please read the statement again. Quite apart from the fact that there is nothing criminal about meeting, there is no call for violence, what Dawood said in her statement is completely misinterpreted in this order.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now refers to the main chargesheet by Delhi Police.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais' instructing counsel now reads the statement of Parvez Alam. He is stated to be the media coordinator of Yogendra Yadav's Swaraj Abhiyan.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: This is the second witness, he doesn't even talk about me. There is third witness named Purushottam Sharma. Please see his statement.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Counsel reads the statement.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: Only submission qua Alam and Sharma is that they only speak of my presence. There is no 164 statements and there is no illegality in this meeting on the face of it either.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now refers to supplementay chargesheet 1 in this matter.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: It says members of the MSJ burnt a copy of the CAA in JNU. A protest was then called at Jantar Mantar and its was attended by people like Imam, Devangana Kalita, Parvez Alam and other students of DU, JNU, JMI.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: A cell id chart was then given to my lords and even it did not show my presence.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: Call detail records show you present there.
Pais: Not at Jantar Mantar. On 7 December I was at Jantar Mantar bu not on 10th December.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now reads the locations attributed to Khalid.
Pais: I never went to Jantar Mantar on 10th December but did go there on 7th. That is an admitted case.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: There is absolutely no consensus between people opposing the CAA. They come from groups which are completely divergent to each other.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais now refers to Sharjeel Imam's speech of December 13.
Pais: This speech shows what he thinks of others who are in the protests.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: He is criticising the fact that the protests are being sought to be inclusive and promotes secularism.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Pais: I completely disagree with this speech. I am being lumped with the person who calls for a deeply communal protest against CAA. There is not ideological connection between these people. Imam is criticizing the secular movement against CAA.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid

J Mridul asks Pais' instructing counsel to read the speech again.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

J Mridul: Okay, we will continue in the post lunch sessions tomorrow.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA

Bench rises. hearing over.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #UAPA