New Delhi [India], October 27 : The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the Delhi police for failing to file its response to the bail pleas of Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider and Shifa Ur Rehman challenging the Delhi High Court order which denied them bail in the UAPA case linked to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 north-east Delhi riots.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria declined the request of Delhi Police for a grant of two weeks' time to file counter-affidavits on the petitions.
The bench said that it had given the Delhi Police enough time to reply to the pleas.
"We made it clear. You (ASG) may be appearing for the first time. We granted sufficient time. Last time we said issue notice and we said in that open court that we will hear this matter on October 27th and will dispose of it," the Court told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju after he sought more time to respond to the appeals filed by the accused.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Umar Khalid, said that the petitioners have been behind bars for over five years.
Justice Kumar suggested that it may consider if bail could be granted on a concession on the ground of delay.
Earlier, the bench had issued notice to the Delhi police on their pleas.
The Delhi High Court on September 2 denied bail to Imam, Khalid and seven others--Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Shadab Ahmed, Abdul Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima.
On September 2, the bail plea of another accused, Tasleem Ahmed, was rejected by a different High Court bench.
Delhi Police had opposed their bail pleas, saying it was not a case of spontaneous riots but a case where riots were "planned well in advance" with a "sinister motive and well-thought-out conspiracy".
The High Court had observed that, prima facie, the role of Imam and Khalid in the entire conspiracy was "grave", having delivered inflammatory speeches on communal lines to "instigate mass mobilisation of members of the Muslim community."
They sought bail from the apex court in the larger conspiracy case under the stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the Delhi riots case in February 2020.
In 2020, the Delhi police had arrested Imam under the UAPA and named him as the main conspirator behind the Delhi riots case.
The violence had erupted during the protests against the then-proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) and had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.