{"id":7578,"date":"2026-01-05T16:14:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=7578"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:14:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:14:47","slug":"delhi-riots-case-why-wont-india-release-umar-khalid-and-sharjeel-imam-explainer-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=7578","title":{"rendered":"Delhi riots case: Why won\u2019t India release Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam? | Explainer News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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New Delhi, India \u2013 <\/strong>India\u2019s Supreme Court has granted bail to five Muslim students and activists in prison for more than five years in connection with the 2020 religious riots in the capital, New Delhi.<\/p>\n

But the top court denied bail to two high-profile scholars \u2013 Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam \u2013 who will remain in the high-security Tihar jail waiting for their trials to start.<\/p>\n

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Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

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Shamshad Ahmed\u2019s son Shadab Ahmed was among those granted bail on Monday, ending an arduous wait of more than five years. Ahmed had been in jail since April 2020, without a trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are feeling very elated,\u201d the 67-year-old father told Al Jazeera, his voice overlapping with cheers in the background. \u201cThe justice was delayed, but at least it was not denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is happy! Our son will return home after spending years in prison for a righteous cause,\u201d the elder Ahmed said. \u201cBut our hearts sink for Umar and Sharjeel; they are also our sons.\u201d<\/p>\n

A change to India\u2019s citizenship law in 2019, which Muslims say is discriminatory, had sparked nationwide peaceful protests. Muslims \u2013 the country\u2019s largest minority, with a population of more than 200 million \u2013 demanded that a secular nation like India should not make faith a basis for citizenship.<\/p>\n

But the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi cracked down on the peaceful protesters, arresting hundreds, many of them under \u201canti-terror\u201d laws, and killing dozens.<\/p>\n

The prolonged detention of students and rights activists without a trial has become emblematic of the institutional persecution of Muslims under Modi\u2019s Hindu-nationalist government, political analysts and rights advocates say.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, New York City\u2019s newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote a letter to Khalid, saying, \u201cWe are all thinking of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what is the case about? Who are the accused? And why did the case become so controversial in India and beyond?<\/p>\n

\"delhi
A group of men, chanting pro-Hindu slogans, beat Mohammad Zubair, 37, who is Muslim, during protests sparked by a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, February 24, 2020 [Danish Siddiqui\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is the case about?<\/h2>\n

Back in 2020, the Modi government changed the citizenship law to expedite citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Muslims across India opposed their exclusion and launched protests, with a women-led sit-in in New Delhi\u2019s Shaheen Bagh becoming the epicentre of India\u2019s biggest protests in decades.<\/p>\n

Amid anti-Muslim rhetoric spearheaded by senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Hindu right-wing mobs attacked peaceful sit-ins in the eastern part of Delhi, triggering a deadly riot. More than 50 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the worst violence in Delhi since the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.<\/p>\n

In response, the police filed 758 criminal cases for investigation and arrested more than 2,000 people. The Delhi Police, accused of bias against Muslims, blamed peaceful protest leaders, many of them young Muslim activists, of hatching a conspiracy to create religious tensions and to topple the elected government \u2013 a claim rubbished by legal and rights experts. At least 18 student leaders and activists were arrested in a case that came to be known as the \u201cmain conspiracy case\u201d.<\/p>\n

The students and activists were charged under an \u201canti-terror\u201d law called the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which makes it virtually impossible to secure bail. This law allows authorities to declare individuals \u201cterrorists\u201d and detain them without trial for months, sometimes years.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s police have been accused of increasingly using \u201canti-terror\u201d laws against marginalised people, including Muslims.<\/p>\n

\"delhi
Demonstrators attend a protest against a new citizenship law in Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi, India, on January 19, 2020 [Danish Siddiqui\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who are the accused?<\/h2>\n

Of the 18 students and activists arrested in the conspiracy case, six were released on bail over the years.<\/p>\n

Today, the Supreme Court is deciding on the bail of seven of the defendants. Here are their brief profiles:<\/p>\n

Umar Khalid<\/em>: A former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who submitted a PhD thesis titled \u201cContesting claims and contingencies of the rule on Adivasis of Jharkhand\u201d in 2018. He is a former leader of the student body the Democratic Students\u2019 Union (DSU) and a founding member of the campaign \u201cUnited Against Hate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sharjeel Imam:<\/em> A PhD research scholar at JNU in the Centre for Historical Studies. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, one of India\u2019s most reputable engineering colleges, and previously worked as a software engineer before returning to academics.<\/p>\n

Meeran Haider:<\/em> A PhD research scholar at the Centre for Management Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia.<\/p>\n

Gulfisha Fatima:<\/em> An MBA graduate engaged in community work and activism. At the time of the protests, she was preparing to become a college lecturer.<\/p>\n

Shifa ur-Rehman:<\/em> A businessman and the president of the Alumni Association of Jamia Millia Islamia. He contested the Delhi assembly polls in 2024 from jail, but lost.<\/p>\n

Shadab Ahmed:<\/em> A professional with a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer applications (BCA). At the time of the protests, Ahmed was volunteering at a protest site in Delhi.<\/p>\n

Saleem Khan:<\/em> A businessman involved in the export industry. At the time of his arrest, he was managing his business and was alleged by police to have been an organiser and provider of food for a protest site.<\/p>\n

\"delhi
Relatives mourn next to the body of Muddasir Khan, who was wounded in a clash between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law, after he succumbed to his injuries, in a riot-affected area of New Delhi, India, February 27, 2020 [Adnan Abidi\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why is this case so controversial in India?<\/h2>\n

The conspiracy case \u2013 and the defendants charged \u2013 have been referred by civil society as a litmus test for the judiciary itself, since New Delhi\u2019s sharp turn towards ultra-nationalism and authoritarianism under Prime Minister Modi.<\/p>\n

Political analysts told Al Jazeera that the case, amid apparently endless hearing dates, changing benches in courts, and administrative delays, has split open the \u201cdual nature\u201d of Indian institutions that are biased against Muslims.<\/p>\n

Asim Ali, a political commentator in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera that after the citizenship protests, the Modi government had a reckoning. \u201cThis mobilisation cannot happen again, ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat protest was a statement by India\u2019s Muslim community that we are reclaiming our citizenship rights \u2013 and you cannot just snatch that,\u201d Ali noted. \u201cBut the government has shown that only they reserve the right to define who can be a citizen \u2013 and they defined it by force.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the top court\u2019s denial of bail to Khalid and Imam, the more well-known students among the detainees, Ali said, \u201cis like categorising one section of the population as internal enemies or suspects, treating them with another class of laws, or rather in a legal shadow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst, noted that Indian courts have regularly granted bail to the accused, including hardcore criminals and rapists. \u201cDenial [of bail to Khalid and Imam] begs a question: Is the court being influenced by a political narrative?\u2029Because otherwise, there is no reason why these two were not granted bail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For more than a billion Indians to continue having faith in the judiciary, Kidwai said, there needs to be \u201cconsistency of law that is equal for all\u201d. And that doesn\u2019t seem to be the case involving Muslim defendants, he noted.<\/p>\n

\"sharjeel
Sharjeel Imam, a student and former co-organiser of a sit-in protest against a new citizenship law, gives an interview in New Delhi, India on December 22, 2019, in this screen grab taken from a video footage on December 22, 2019 [Anushree Fadnavis\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why will Khalid and Imam stay imprisoned?<\/h2>\n

Pronouncing its order on Monday morning at the top court in New Delhi, the bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria said they were not convinced that the prolonged pre-trial detention of Khalid and Imam and the delay in trial do not operate as a \u201ctrump card\u201d.<\/p>\n

The court noted that the duo was not on equal footing in the hierarchy of the alleged conspiracy as others who were granted bail. The bench said it found a prima facie case under the \u201canti-terror\u201d law, stating the duo held a \u201ccentral and formative role\u201d in the conspiracy and can reapply for bail after one year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that these judges have been unduly influenced by government pressure.\u2029And it was enormous government pressure not to release [Khalid and Imam],\u201d said Prashant Bhushan, a senior advocate at the Supreme Court and a rights campaigner.<\/p>\n

Now, the student activists are \u201cbasically in a deadlock\u201d, Bhushan said, adding, \u201cThis case shows two things: the Modi government is willing to misuse anti-terror law and the investigative agencies; secondly, that courts are also bowing down to the dictates of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges are serious, but there is no real substance behind those charges,\u201d said Bhushan, who has reviewed the case details.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia is no longer a democracy under the Modi regime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"delhi
People crowd to receive free grocery items being distributed outside a relief camp after fleeing their homes following Hindu-Muslim clashes triggered by a new citizenship law, in Mustafabad in the riot-affected northeast of New Delhi, India, March 3, 2020 [Anushree Fadnavis\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What has been the case\u2019s impact on India?<\/h2>\n

Since the protests against the citizenship law and the crackdown that followed, political observers and leaders say that student politics have been outlawed by design and fear.<\/p>\n

Natasha Narwal, an activist and researcher who spent over a year in jail in the same case, told Al Jazeera that due to the government crackdown, \u201cany protest that presents a challenge to the regime and its policies is easily criminalised\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is increased surveillance in the universities, scrutiny on every little activity \u2013 from organising a seminar, a talk, a movie screening, or any kind of gathering,\u201d Narwhal said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf not criminal cases, then students keep getting show cause notices and face all kinds of disciplinary actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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