Northeast Delhi violence: Court dismisses bail plea of Khalid Saifi

A Delhi Court on Friday dismissed the bail plea of Khalid Saifi, an accused in a larger conspiracy connected with the northeast Delhi violence case. Saifi was booked under UAPA by the Delhi Police. It was alleged that Khalid Saifi was one of the main organisers of the Khureji Protest site which was near Badi Masjid in the Khureji area.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the bail plea saying, "I am of the opinion that allegations against the accused Khalid Saifi are prima facie true."

Senior Advocate Rebecca John, counsel for the accused had argued that the accused Khalid Saifi has been falsely implicated in this case and the entire case of the prosecution is unsubstantiated without any evidence to link with the communal riots of 2020.

It was also argued that the accused is a businessman by profession and runs a travel agency.

He is also a social activist. There is no evidence on record to suggest that the accused gave any provocative speech so as to instigate anyone to commit any act of violence.

Senior Advocate had argued that the reliance of the prosecution on a WhatsApp group called DPSG would show the peripheral participation of the accused in the said group. Nothing in the group or in the accused's participation in the group is suggestive of any criminal conspiracy.

Counsel for the accused further argued that as per the prosecution, funding was provided to him between December 2019 and 26 February 2020 for orchestrating riots in Delhi. It was argued that the accused was receiving money from Naseef Abdul Kareem in his NGO bank account not just in 2020 but since 2018. The statement of Abdul Majid, a trustee of the New Education Welfare Organisation, NGO, is inherently false.

On the other hand, opposing the bail the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad had argued that there is sufficient material on record to establish that the accusation against Khalid Saifi is prima facie true and hence the bail application may be dismissed.

SPP Amit Prasad had submitted that Khalid Saifi was a member of Whatsapp group DPSG, CAB Team and United Against Hate (UAH) Okhla. Khalid Saifi had also attended a meeting at 6/6 Jangpura, Bhogal, Delhi on 8 December 2019 attended by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider and others. He had also attended a meeting on 26 December 2019 at Indian Social Institute, Lodhi Colony, Delhi after which DPSG was created on 28 December 2019.

In northeast Delhi, massive violence had broken out in February 2020. In this violence, 53 people had died and hundreds were injured according to the police.

(ANI)