The Special Cell of Delhi Police has on Friday (31st July 2020) interrogated former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid in connection with the North-East Delhi Riots case. He along with at least eight others were booked previously under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) law.
He was questioned by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in connection with an alleged conspiracy behind the North East Delhi Riots. On Saturday, the Delhi Police has also informed that his phone was also confiscated. At least 53 people were left dead and 400 were injured in the riots that broke out in the North East Delhi in February.
The Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Neeraj Thakur confirmed that Umar Khalid was questioned by his team at their office on Friday and his cellphone was seized for investigation. He had also refused to share any further details.
The other people already arrested in relation to the case include Pinjra Tod activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Co-Ordination Committee’s Media Co-ordinator Safoora Zargar, Student at Jamia Millia Islamia Meeran Haider and Thair Hussain, suspended councilor of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). However, the legal counsel for the persons arrested in the case has accused the Delhi Police of witch-hunting the students and activists who were part of the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (Anti-CAA) protests.
Umar Khalid was first arrested in February 2016 for alleged charges of shouting ‘Anti-India’ slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus along with former JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya. They were charged with cases on grounds of sedition. While the case is still being heard by a city court, they had denied the charges put forth on them and had claimed that the police had doctored videos get them trapped in the case.
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