New Delhi: Jailed activist Umar Khalid, on Monday, April 13, filed a review petition challenging the Supreme Court’s ruling denying him bail in the 2020 Delhi riots case.
Advocate N Sai Vinod filed the petition for Khalid before the top court bench led by Justice Aravind Kumar. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal sought an open court hearing in the matter.
Although the judge did not pass an order, he set it aside for consideration.
In February 2020, clashes over the then-proposed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) led to the Delhi riots, where at least 53 people died, and several were injured.
Delhi police had told the top court that Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others conspired to strike at the sovereignty and integrity of the country by a “regime change operation” executed under the guise of “peaceful protest”.
Arguing that the alleged offences involved a deliberate attempt to destabilise the State, which warrants “jail and not bail”, the Delhi Police had said it has collected ocular, documentary and technical evidence against the accused showing their intrinsic, deep-rooted and fervent complicity in engineering nationwide riots on communal lines.
The riots were not spontaneous but part of a “deep-rooted, premeditated and pre-planned” conspiracy, it claimed.
Subsequently, on January 5, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecution material suggests that Khalid and Imam were involved in “planning, mobilisation and strategic direction” of the riots, and denied them bail in the conspiracy case.
