"Cooked-Up Witness" In Delhi Riots Case, Says Accused Umar Khalid

Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid said statements of the witnesses in the Delhi riots conspiracy case were written by someone else.

Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid told a court on Monday that statements of the witnesses in the Delhi riots conspiracy case were written by someone else and given to them as police did not have any evidence, and a case can't be made against him on half-truths.

Umar Khalid and several others have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a stringent anti-terror law, and are accused of being the "masterminds" of the north-east Delhi riots in February, 2020 which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

Arguing his bail plea before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat, senior advocate Trideep Pais read out the statements of three protected witnesses and claimed that they were contradictory and cooked up.

During the proceedings, Trideep Pais read out a police allegation from the charge sheet regarding an alleged secret meeting in Delhi's Seelampur area on January 23 and 24 last year in which Khalid had allegedly directed that the protests be escalated to riots and result in the spilling of blood of policemen and others.