2020 Delhi riots: Accused should be in jail till they are acquitted or convicted, police tell HC

The Delhi Police on Wednesday urged the High Court to deny bail to those accused of being part of a “larger conspiracy” linked to the 2020 Delhi riots, claiming that they tried to defame the country in an orchestrated manner, PTI reported.

“If you are doing something against your nation then you better be in jail till you are acquitted or convicted,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the police, told a bench of Justices Naveen Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, according to the agency.

Mehta told the court that this was not an ordinary case, where those accused of a crime could argue that they should be released on bail since they had been incarcerated for a long time.

“In cases involving anti-national activities, long incarceration is not a factor,” the solicitor general was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “This is an attack on the sovereignty of the country. By attacking the National Capital, it would have an effect on the entire country.

Mehta alleged that the accused persons tried to promote communal narratives by forming a WhatsApp group named “Muslim students of JNU" [Jawaharlal Nehru University”. He claimed that former JNU students Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, by doing so, “broke the secular fabric” of the university, PTI reported.

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