By: Express News ServiceNew Delhi | December 11, 2025 05:25 AM IST 3 min readThe Delhi HC had on September 2 rejected the bail pleas of nine accused in the case – Khalid, Imam, Gulshifa Fathima, Meeran Haider, Athar Khan, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman and Shadab Ahmed.The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its decision on bail applications moved by the accused in the 2020 Delhi riots larger conspiracy case, who have challenged the Delhi High Court order dismissing their bail pleas and the police insisting that key accused Umar Khalid deliberately left the Capital prior to the date of the violence to absolve himself.Defending Khalid, senior advocate Kapil Sibal had argued that he was not in Delhi when the riots took place in February 2020.Countering this, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police, told a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria on Wednesday that Khalid “deliberately planned to leave Delhi before the riots happened… he wanted to deflect responsibility”.“The planning was done by Umar Khalid. They have misstated that he was not admin of Delhi Protest Support Group (DPSG) and only admins could send messages (on WhatsApp). Everyone could post messages before March 11, including Umar Khalid. After March 11, they deleted everything and subsequently he was not made an admin,” he added.Raju further said that subsequent to the riots, the accused migrated to ‘Signal’ platform to communicate. “On March 11, 2020, they migrated to Signal. Therefore, the claim that he could not post on that group – DPSG, is wrong. Till the crucial dates he could. Later, they made that change.”The ASG also said that once cognisance for conspiracy is taken, the statements of one conspirator can be attributed to others. “(Co-accused) Sharjeel Imam’s speeches can be attributed to Umar Khalid. Sharjeel Imam’s case will be considered as evidence against the others,” he added.To the court’s query as to what was the relevance of highlighting the 2016 FIR linked to Khalid’s alleged ‘tukde tukde’ speech in JNU in the context of the 2020 riots, Raju said, “Conspiracy begins before the act. Conspiracy can start even two years before. It happens before the act. As per protected witness… all instructions came from Umar Khalid. The decisions of Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) used to come from Umar Khalid and Nadeem Khan. Umar Khalid was actually present on the ground on the first stage of the protest.” There are call data records to establish this, he added.Story continues below this adWhen Justice Kumar asked what the speeches had to do with what happened on the ground so as to constitute a terroirst act, Raju said that it was the “speech” that “led to action. “Speech gives an idea of what was planned. There were meetings.”The court pointed out that the defence had argued that a charge of conspiracy would not still make it a terrorist act under UAPA.To this, Raju said, “Their speech reveals that economic security would be affected. It is not an unlawful act. It will fall under the purview of a terrorist act. Any act which intends to threaten unity or integrity or economic security or use of bombs…”The Delhi HC had on September 2 rejected the bail pleas of nine accused in the case – Khalid, Imam, Gulshifa Fathima, Meeran Haider, Athar Khan, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman and Shadab Ahmed – maintaining that the riots were not a “regular protest” but a “premeditated, well-orchestrated conspiracy”. Following this, the accused had moved SC seeking bail. © The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Delhi riots 2020