Umar Khalid conspired to fuel Delhi riots during Trump's visit: Police

New Delhi: Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid hatched the conspiracy to fuel Delhi riots during US President Donald Trump’s visit in February this year to spread globally the propaganda over torture of minorities in India, police has alleged in the charge sheet.

Delhi Police filed a supplementary charge sheet in a court in Delhi against Khalid and JNU student Sharjeel Imam in the case related to the alleged larger conspiracy in the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February.

According to the charge sheet, filed on Sunday, Khalid allegedly left Delhi on February 23 for Patna and came back on February 27 as part of the conspiracy. It further alleged that Khalid held meeting with other accused persons at an office in Chand Bagh.

In the FIR, police has claimed that the communal violence was a “premeditated conspiracy” which was allegedly hatched by Khalid and two others. Khalid had allegedly given provocative speeches at two different places and appealed to the citizens to come out on streets and block the roads during Trump’s visit to spread the propaganda at the international level about minorities in India are being tortured, the police has alleged.

In this conspiracy, firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones were collected at numerous homes, they claimed.

Co-accused Mohd Danish was allegedly given the responsibility to gather people from two different places to take part in the riots, the police alleged.

Women and children were made to block the roads under the Jafrabad metro station on February 23 to create tension amidst the neighbourhood people, FIR said. The charge sheet was filed before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat against Khalid, Imam and one Faizan Khan under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sections related to criminal conspiracy, murder, rioting, sedition, unlawful assembly and promoting enmity on the grounds of religion, language, caste, etc of the Indian Penal Code, according to sources.

The offences entail a maximum punishment of death penalty. The 930-page supplementary charge sheet was filed under sections 13 (unlawful activities), 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act) and 18 (conspiracy) of the UAPA.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the law, including criminal conspiracy, read abetment, abettor present when offence is committed, sedition and rioting. The three have also been charged for wrongful restraint, assault to deter public servant, dacoity, cheating, mischief, mischief by fire, house trespass, house breaking, forgery, using forged document as genuine, common intention and under relevant sections of the Arms Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act, the sources said. While Khalid and Imam are currently in judicial custody in the case, Khan had been granted bail by the Delhi High Court.

The main charge sheet was filed in September against Pinjra Tod members and JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha and student activist Gulfisha Fatima.

Others who were charge-sheeted included former Congress Councillor Ishrat Jahan, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider and Shifa-Ur-Rehman, suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain, activist Khalid Saifi, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Salim Malik, Mohd Salim Khan and Athar Khan.

Communal violence had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.