Prateek Tanmay
3 min readUpdated: Jul 4, 2026 10:50 PM IST
A Delhi court on Saturday rejected the bail applications of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the larger-conspiracy terror case linked to the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots, underlining that it had “no option but to follow” the Supreme Court order dated January 5.
On January 5, the apex court had refused bail to Khalid and Imam in the larger-conspiracy case, while granting the relief to co-accused Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria had then observed that there was a prima-facie case against Khalid and Imam under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and held that all accused could not be treated equally in view of the “hierarchy of participation”.
Only on the completion of the examination of the protected witnesses, the apex court had said, or upon expiry of one year from the date of said order, whichever is earlier, Imam and Khalid would be at liberty to renew their prayer for grant of bail.
As the matter came up before him on Saturday, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma Court said that the bail pleas of the accused were not maintainable in court and he could neither entertain the pleas nor grant them relief.
“This court has no option but to follow the judgment dated January 5, 2026, as passed by the Supreme Court, whereby the petitions of both the applicants were dismissed. Following the said order of the Supreme Court, this court cannot entertain the applications and grant bail to the applicants. In fact, the applications are not maintainable and they are hereby dismissed,” the Judge said.
“Since then, there are no substantial changes of circumstances as pleaded by the applicants and there arises no question to re-consider the bail of the applicants,” the Judge underlined.
Khalid and Imam were booked under the stringent UAPA for allegedly being part of a larger conspiracy linked to the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi, which left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
