New Delhi, Feb 18 The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea challenging a Delhi High Court's order denying bail to an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Prasanna B Varale issued notice to the Delhi Police seeking its response on the plea filed by accused Abdul Khalid Saifi.
During the hearing, the bench observed that the accused cannot claim parity with the top court's last month verdict granting bail to five co-accused in the case.
"If you are claiming parity on our judgement, we will straightaway say no," the bench told the counsel appearing for the petitioner.
The bench tagged Saifi's plea with a separate pending petition filed by another accused who was also denied bail by the high court.
Saifi has challenged the high court's September 2 last year verdict which refused to grant him bail in the case.
On January 5, observing that reasonable grounds exist for believing that allegations against Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam were prima facie true, the top court refused bail to them in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case but granted relief to five others, saying all the accused do not stand on the same footing.
Activists Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad were granted bail by the apex court, which imposed 11 conditions and said any misuse of liberty would attract cancellation of bail.
The February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi broke out during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
Khalid, Imam and others were booked for the alleged offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the riots. The accused have denied the allegations.
