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The Delhi high court on Friday issued notice in the bail application filed by student activist Sharjeel Imam in the larger conspiracy case linked to the February 2020 Delhi riots.

Sharjeel through his lawyer Ibrahim and Talib Mustafa moved the high court against the trial court’s July 4 order. (File HT photo)A bench of justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajn sought Delhi Police’s response and fixed August 27 as the next date of hearing.

“Issue notice. List on August 27,” the court said in its order.

Sharjeel through his lawyer Ibrahim and Talib Mustafa moved the high court against the trial court’s July 4 order.

The trial court on July 4 had denied Sharjeel and Umar Khalid’s bail holding that there were no grounds to “entertain” the fresh plea as it could not even examine whether circumstances had changed since the Supreme Court rejected their pleas in January.

Additional sessions judge (ASJ) Sameer Bajpai of the Karkardooma Courts, observed that the divergence of opinion between the January 5 Supreme Court judgment in the Gulfisha Fatima case and the subsequent ruling in the case involving Syed Iftikhar Andrabi had already been referred to a larger bench of the apex court. Until that issue is settled, the trial court said, it could not consider the fresh applications on any ground.

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The court issued notice after Sharjeel’s counsel argued that the trial court had erred in holding that there were no grounds to entertain a fresh bail application. They submitted that the finding was fallacious as the trial had made no progress, with charges yet to be framed. Counsel pointed out that the stage of the proceedings remained unchanged from January, when the Supreme Court had rejected Sharjeel’s bail plea.

Opposing the bail plea, additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police, submitted that the trial court, in its January order, had already considered the issue of delay in the trial while rejecting bail. He further argued that a substantial amount of time had been spent hearing arguments on the framing of charges. Raju added that the police would file a detailed reply to the bail application.

The Delhi Police arrested Sharjeel on January 28, 2020. They had booked them under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), alleging that the two were the intellectual architects behind the entire conspiracy, working in tandem with the other co-conspirators, which escalated into large-scale communal violence during the February 2020 Delhi riots. The riots erupted in violence on February 23, 2020, following protests over the then-proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that left 53 dead and hundreds injured.