Ashutosh S Boddh ‘Vidrohi’, founder of the Ambedkar Students Association, Delhi University, says if liberty is denied without trial, no one will be safe tomorrow. His views:
As a law student and a student leader in Delhi University, I cannot remain silent over the continuing injustice meted out to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and other activists charged in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The Delhi High Court’s refusal, yet again, to grant them bail on 2 September 2025, is not just a legal decision—it is a statement on the shrinking space for dissent and the erosion of our constitutional values.
It has now been over five years since Khalid and others were arrested, and their trials are nowhere near conclusion. This transforms what should be “pre-trial detention” into punishment itself. In principle, Indian criminal law rests on a simple yet profound doctrine: bail is the rule, jail the exception. This was affirmed time and again by the Supreme Court, whether in State of Rajasthan Vs Balchand (1978) or Sanjay Chandra Vs CBI (2012).
Liberty, as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, is meant to be curtailed only in the rarest circumstances, and every accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Yet, when it comes to UAPA cases, this principle is abandoned.
Section 43D(5) of UAPA imposes near-automatic denial of bail if the prosecution can establish a “prima facie” case. In practice, this means courts are forced to take the state’s allegations at face value, without subjecting them to deeper scrutiny. The Supreme Court’s judgment in NIA Vs. Zahoor Watali (2019) cemented this approach, making bail under UAPA almost illusory. The result is a system where activists can be imprisoned indefinitely without trial, punished not for proven crimes but for daring to speak truth to power.
Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam are not terrorists. They are young men who raised their voices against authoritarianism, communal hatred, and the oppression of marginalized communities. Their speeches, writings, and activism were firmly rooted in democratic freedoms and social justice. That the state chooses to brand them conspirators is telling—it reveals how dissent itself is being criminalized.
As someone engaged in student politics, I see how these imprisonments cast a chilling shadow over campuses and civil society. When activists are jailed without trial for over half a decade, what message does it send to young people who dare to question the government? It signals that democracy will tolerate only silence, not critique. It creates fear where there should be dialogue.
Human rights organizations worldwide have warned against the misuse of UAPA, pointing to its vague language and selective application. The fact that Khalid and Imam remain in jail despite unproven allegations reflects how our legal institutions are increasingly tilted in favour of state power. If liberty can be denied so easily in their case, it sets a precedent for countless others.
This struggle is not just about one or two individuals. It is about the future of democracy in India. Will we allow national security laws to override fundamental freedoms? Or will we, as citizens, reclaim the principle that liberty is the norm, detention the exception?
At Delhi University, many of us are in discussions about organizing campaigns and peaceful marches to demand justice for Umar Khalid and others. Their freedom is not just their right—it is a test of whether India still values dissent, diversity, and the Constitution we hold dear.
The case of Umar Khalid reminds us that the fight for liberty is ongoing. It demands courage from all of us—students, teachers, lawyers, and ordinary citizens. For if liberty can be denied without trial today, none of us can be safe tomorrow.
(The narrator is a student leader and a Law student at the Faculty Of Law in Delhi University)
Arunima Rai, a law student from Lucknow University, says the denial of bail to 2020 riots accused can be a matter of debate & legal interpretation but the High Court has acted as per law. Her views:
Before discussing the issue of denial of bail to Umar Khalid in the 2020 Delhi riots case, it should be made clear to every person born and living in India that anyone’s patriotism and dedication towards the country is not measured or decided by his/her name, caste, creed, religion, region, colour, etc. If an accused is facing serious anti-national or anti-terror charges, he or she is bound to be tried under our laws without any concessions or concerns.
The Delhi High Court in its September 2order has rejected the bail petition of student activist Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others, saying that “conspiratorial” violence under the garb of demonstrations or protests by citizens could not be allowed. This has once again stirred things up among the ecosystem behind Khalid-Imam, a bunch of so-called ‘activists’ and self-proclaimed members of the civil society, who have been rallying support for Khalid and team from the day of their arrest!
What was further shocking for me was that Khalid-Imam’s supporters were marking the occasion as one of his achievements, for having stayed behind bars for five years. I do not find it amusing when an accused facing charges under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is lionised as a ‘revolutionary’. Do the supporters of Khalid-Imam approve of their plans (expressed from a public platform, as reported by the media) to cut down a portion of the country from the mainland and instigating a mob to burn the national capital?
Now the bigger question: The court, in denying bail, has repeatedly stressed upon the fact that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that the accusations against them were “prima facie true”. Essentially, they thought there was enough initial evidence to suggest involvement in a “larger conspiracy”. However, the accused have consistently denied these charges, and their legal teams have been arguing that this long pre-trial detention is a clear violation of their fundamental rights.
To be precise, under UAPA provisions that pertain to matters concerning national security, bail cannot be granted on grounds of delay in trial. The entire trial is important because it can set a precedent for the treatment of all terrorism and sedition cases and also for the state’s strategy to deal with dissent.
It should be crystal clear to everyone and all groups and individuals who are crying foul and trying to project Khalid-Imam and others as victims of a legal system because of their specific identities, that Indian laws treat every citizen of India equally. At the same time, seeking or expecting any kind of relaxations under the garb of prejudice or targeting of their religious identity is far-fetched and impossible in our judicial system.
Listen! Faiz, Do you know? The difference between your and my wait Is only A fixed time Just a few more days You knew that Like the gust of breeze Speechless cloud does not tell When I ask— “How many more seasons like this?” Who knows how many more seasons? — Gulfisha Fatima, prison poems.
So, how many more seasons, condemned, exiled, trapped, a young girl, a brilliant scholar, a compassionate heart which beats for justice?
How many more seasons would it take for the wise and elderly, in the justice system, and in the political establishment, to realise, that, perhaps this is sheer injustice, and a form of relentless cruelty. Only because she was a peaceful dissenter, and, of course, a Muslim and a woman.
With the arrival of spring and summer, this was no Vivaldi’s lilting four seasons for Gulfisha Fatima. April 9 this year marked five years of un-freedom for her. Five years can look like infinity, if you look at the drab walls which traps a young, restless soul with a spark in her eyes. It could be like living hell.
And, yet, from where do these young minds generate the stoic resilience, the dogged optimism, the spirit of freedom, the power to write?
While the political class, the students and academia, the mainstream media and intelligentsia, chooses to shut their eyes wide shut, a few sensitive souls, recited her poetry, sitting on the bench in a park, inside a metro or a library, across the pan shop on the street, in the classroom, here, there, everywhere, as a symbolic soliloquy of solidarity. And protest.
Devangana Kalita, a former JNU Phd scholar, too, was imprisoned in Tihar Jail, Delhi. She was released along with Natasha Narwal, another JNU researcher. Their crime: peaceful protest with other women against the polarising and communal CAA.
In a PUCL bulletin, Devangana writes: “Gulfisha did not have any prior experience of engaging or organising protests. She learned and emerged organically as the movement progressed to become a powerful voice of collective assertion and democratic resistance. In the sit-in protest site in Seelampur, she used to regularly hold adult literacy classes for the women who would come to participate in the protest. She was committed to building women’s local initiative and leadership through the protests. In the face of inhuman incarceration, she has remained steadfast in her commitment to education, activism, and the collective spirit of solidarity. Inside the prison, she has become a source of hope and support for her co-inmates, many of whom rely on her for basic literacy, legal aid, and emotional support. As a tutor with the ‘Pado Padhao’ programme inside prison, she has taught fellow prisoners to read and write, and has provided them with a sense of agency that is often denied within the prison system. Gulfisha has also found strength in creativity, turning her hardships into powerful poetry, artwork, and letters that capture the emotional toll of her unjust imprisonment…”
She continues: “It will soon be five years since Gulfisha’s arrest. While Gulfisha got bail in the other two FIRs in 2020 itself, she continues to remain incarcerated under the UAPA case. Her quest for bail in FIR 59/20 has been marked with never-ending adjournments and judicial delays in what has become a complete travesty of justice. She filed for bail in the High Court in May 2022. It will be three years for her, just waiting for a verdict on her petition. Her bail has been argued twice but judges in two benches have been transferred and they have left without pronouncing a judgement. Currently, since November last year, her bail is being argued for the third time in the High Court and the ordeal continues…”
The ordeal continues. According to a statement by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gulfisha is detained for protesting religious freedom conditions. In May 2020, Fatima was granted bail in the Jaffrabad protest case (FIR 48/2020). However, she was forced to remain in prison under FIR 59/2020. On June 26, 2020, several UN experts called for the release of Fatima and other protesters, saying that their arrests seem “clearly designed to send a chilling message…that criticism of government policies will not be tolerated”.
For a young girl, exercising her fundamental right of peaceful protest, the commission cites the charges against her: Criminal Premeditation and Conspiracy, Hate Speech, Illicit Financing Murder and Attempted Murder, Public Disorder, Terrorism, and Treason and Sedition.
Similar cases include others who are still languishing in jail: Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi, and others. The Neo-Nazi apparatus of stark injustice rolls on.
On June 15, 2021, Devangana, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha were granted bail by the Delhi High Court in a historic order which observed: “We are constrained to say, that it appears, that in its anxiety to suppress dissent and in the morbid fear that matters may get out of hand, the State has blurred the line between the constitutionally guaranteed ‘right to protest’ and ‘terrorist activity’.” Subsequently, their bail was challenged by Delhi Police in the Supreme Court. On May 2, 2023, the Supreme Court upheld Devangana, Natasha and Asif’s bail. It, however, directed that the above bail order cannot be “treated as precedent”. (Sabrangindia.in, Courtesy Free Speech Collective, April 9, 2025).
In a tweet, Natasha Narwal has written: Today marks three years of Gulfisha’s painful incarceration under UAPA for daring to raise her voice against the unjust CAA-NRC-NPR. She has been penning beautiful heart-wrenching poetry from her prison cell. Listen to them. Let it sink in.
In this darkness at noon, their ordeal speaks of a Neo-Nazi State which seems to have focused on young Muslims, especially enlightened and brilliant scholars, who have a parallel vision for the country, who are peaceful dissenters, and who believe in the Indian Constitution. They are celebrating the murderer of Graham Staines and his two teenage sons, burnt alive in their vehicle in Odisha. In the same manner, a former Union minister garlanded the mob-lyncher in Jharkhand. The same way as “Brahmins with good Sanskar” rapists of Bilkis Bano were feted and garlanded after their release. A predictable pattern, indeed.
The message is cold-blooded: if you are young, Muslim, and, worse, an intellectual with a political vision which is radical, inspirational, egalitarian, secular and pluralistic, and if you dare to protest, then you better be prepared to be condemned in a prison, branded as a terrorist, or charged with sedition and other deadly cases under a draconian law. While bail is the rule, and the accused is deemed innocent till proved guilty, for these young men and women, the process itself has become the punishment.
And, indeed, once they are found innocent, who will return them their nights and days, their seasons of poetry, happiness and romance, their freedom and desires, the love of their loved ones?
Who will give them these precious days of youth back?
In the same poem, writes Gulfisha:
On the pitch-black night yesterday, There was a knock on the doors of prison Of the innocent breezes Of cries of our dear ones Even the lightning Was screaming for help Asking for our freedom Even the well-shaped branches Openly joined in the grief After failed attempts And losing control The delicate tears of rain Started to pour Struck against the earth’s crust, And the rhythm of the drops Turned it into A commotion of pleas. But— The deaf snakes Kept dancing With their poisonous hoods Laying their web of traps. And— The oppressed Stood with their hands raised On that pitch-black night… The court says: Now that you have come Make an appeal, but yes It will take long And by then, you will be exhausted. Justice says: I am precious Hear me loud in clear You may be destroyed/consumed Seeking me…
The God of Loss. The God of Small Things. He left no footprints in the sand, no ripples in water, no image in mirrors. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Now, they have got after author Arundhati Roy. After ten years of tracking her life and times, replete with balanced, critical and insightful resistance to the Neo-Nazis gone berserk, the Booker Prize winner and international celebrity, has become the first target of the fake prophet’s unpopular and hated regime in the scorching summer of June 2024. Certainly, all the heads of state in Italy are currently fully aware of his glorious deeds, past and present, at the G-7 Summit, including that he was banned from travelling to the US for ten long years, and became a global pariah, after presiding over the carnage in Gujarat, 2002.
Indeed, running a crippled government with a lost mandate, despite all the machinations of the Election Commission and his stooge media, discredited and rejected by almost half of the Indian voters, having just about scraped through in his own constituency, the ‘non-biological’ one has not changed his spots. And, clearly, he is refusing to learn any lessons from history.
The draconian UAPA case against Roy yet again reminds the nation of Gulfisha, Sharjeel and Umar Khalid. Indeed, have we forgotten them all — brilliant, young scholars, rotting in prison in this heat wave, for more than three years now, without a legitimate bail, imprisoned on what are widely believed to be cooked-up charges, with no evidence whatsoever?
Is it a crime that they are not celebrities, and, instead, are legitimate Muslim citizens of a secular democracy? Thereby, should they be treated as ‘second class’ citizens which Mr M wants to turn into a one-dimensional, repressive, racist and patriarchal ‘Hindu Rashtra’? Is it a crime to be a Muslim – modern, young, enlightened — in contemporary India?
Besides, is it not a recurring message, that once the series of mob-lynching of Muslims under State protection stopped, mainly because of the outrage against it across the nation, these scholars were picked up and punished, only because they were peaceful dissenters, articulate in their reinterpretation of a pluralist society, and firm believers in the Indian Constitution?
So, who is Gulfisha?
She is also called Gul. Gul means a flower. Perhaps, a rose. Gul has done her MBA, is considered exceptionally talented by her friends and family, and apart from other public causes, she used to take English language classes with local Muslim women during the non-violent protests against the polarizing anti-constitutional CAA.
Gulfisha, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam (L to R)
She was not alone in this kaleidoscopic mass movement of rainbow coalitions. Led by brave students, especially women, of Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, including students of JNU and other campuses, and the mothers and daughters of Shaheen Bagh in the neighbourhood, the protests had rocked the country. Tens of thousands of people were on the streets across India, and innumerable Shaheen Baghs were being born in towns and cities.
That is why, Mr M’s best Gujju buddy wanted to send an ‘electric current, with every button pressed of the electronic machine, during the assembly polls in Delhi in 2020, which they so badly lost, yet again. Wonder, why should a Union home minister inflict electric current on his own citizens, and what a crude and ugly message it really meant for the women of India?
The deadly Delhi riots followed. Inevitably, one community suffered the most. And members of the same community, young dissenters, were all picked up and punished. So predictable is this perverse pattern! Injustice follows injustice, like an Orwellian nightmare!
According to a report by the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) (April 9, 2024): “On March 5, the Delhi High Court’s Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain heard a petition for bail. The court decided to reserve its bail verdict. Gulfisha Fatima again was sent back to prison. As the probe by the police continues, April 9 marks four years of the incarceration of Gulfisha. She has been implicated and accused of violence during the north-east Delhi violence of 2020.”
“…The police had further claimed that she had had an office near the protest site from where she would take to planning riots with others, including those accused in the case such as Khalid Saifi, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and her lawyer Mehmood Pracha…”
Natasha and Devangana were later released on bail after spending a long time inside the prison. They are both scholars in JNU. Their release should have marked a precedence. None of that happened.
Indeed, the CJP reported that after several such arrests, experts from the United Nations called the arrests politically motivated and called for Gulfisha’s release, along with other protestors. “These defenders, many of them students, appear to have been arrested simply because they exercised their right to denounce and protest against the CAA The experts termed the arrests as “designed to send a chilling message…that criticism of government policies will not be tolerated.”
And what about Sharjeel Imam? Have we forgotten him also?
Sharjeel hails from Jehanabad, Bihar. His academic record tells a story, not found easily in most Muslim homes, not even in most Indian homes. He completed his BTech and MTech from IIT-Bombay and joined JNU in 2013 for his Master’s in ‘Modern History’. Two years later, he started work on his PhD theses. He has been framed with multiple charges and continues to languish in jail.
All who have met Umar Khalid, know him to be an affable, happy, friendly, resilient, forthcoming and brave young man, whose heart beats for the poor and against all forms of injustice. A firm believer in the Indian Constitution, his passionate and captivating speeches were mesmerizing, taking the audience to a journey of new facts and insights about Indian society, its past and present. He represented the modern aspiration, values and ethics of the young generation – non-sectarian, open-ended, always ready to listen to the others’ viewpoint, and steadfast in his faith in the idea of infinite resistance against all that stands for evil. He finished his PhD from the Centre for Historical Studies in the School of Social Sciences in JNU.
Khalid Saifi, his friend and comrade in the ‘United Against Hate’, is also languishing in prison. Similar charges. A big-hearted husband of a loving and brave wife, with three beautiful children, he was doing relief work in the riot-affected areas on the day he was picked up. He remains resilient and strong, though his wife and kids miss him like hell. Her occasional posts on the social media are heart-breaking.
Only a totally cruel and heartless regime can do this to a mother and her children — what they have done to him!
Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has now accorded sanction to prosecute Arundhati Roy and a former professor in Kashmir, Sheikh Showkat Hussain, under the UAPA, for allegedly making provocative speeches at an event in Delhi in 2010.
Besides the relentless hounding of the popular AAP government, Saxena has done precious little for the people of Delhi. The citizens of Delhi know too well, especially the poor, that all that they have gained under the AAP government has been unprecedented – fantastic, world class government schools with specialized skills and modern equipment for children coming from humble homes, free bus rides for women in the Delhi Transport Corporation, an end to the hounding of hard-working street-vendors, rickshaw-pullers and vegetable-sellers by the municipal corporation and cops, multiple body tests, hospital services and mohalla clinics with not a penny spent, and, of course, free water and highly subsidized electric supply.
Saxena has no credibility whatsoever. Now, the hounding of Arundhati Roy, will make him internationally famous – albeit for the wrong reasons.
Certainly, Roy is not going to succumb or compromise. Instead, she will become more resilient and inspiring. Undoubtedly, this is the time for the INDIA alliance, civil society and women’s groups, farmers, students, teachers, workers and ordinary citizens, to teach this totally corrupt and crony capitalist regime, without a mandate, a lesson. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, yet again, should lead this struggle for human and fundamental rights – and the Right to Dissent. And the Left should join them in the barricades.
The Neo-Nazis have been squarely defeated in the ballot box. This is the time for the people of India to hit the streets. Peacefully. If thinkers, scholars and creative writers can’t express themselves peacefully, than that society can never ever call itself a democracy!
Nivedya P T, a student at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, says the current regime uses multiple tactics to quell even peaceful dissent
A Delhi Court recently dismissed the cases against Sharjeel Imam and 10 other Jamia Millia Students who had been in prison for a long time. Remarkably, the court also observed that a strong democracy depends on the fundamental right to peaceful dissent, which is guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. However, it hasn’t always been the case in recent years.
Anyone in India who expresses political dissent today runs the risk of being arrested on fabricated charges and is likely to face a tough time getting a fair trial and bail. From Anand Teltumble and Varavara Rao to Akhil Gogoi and Umar Khalid, we have witnessed that anybody who dares to challenge the status quo or something deemed ‘unfavorable’ to the current dispensation in Delhi, is arrested and charged under draconian laws like UAPA.
The charges are used to exploit the legal system as a tool for persecution. The process itself becomes the punishment; years are taken to resolve the cases, causing immense suffering for them and their families. The arrest of journalist Siddiqui Kappan is one case in point.
Another is of Safoora Zargar who was arrested when she was in the second trimester of her pregnancy and sent to an overcrowded Tihar Jail. How much more inhuman can the system be? Father Stan Swamy died while in police custody, after being denied basic health facilities despite being 80-plus and terminally ill.
Nivedya (left) says the current dispensation seeks to destroy campuses which are fertile ground for new ideas
In this light, the Delhi court judgment is welcome, but we must not forget that there are many activists charged under similar penal provisions, to whom justice has not yet been served. These activists, including women, Dalits and Adivasis, often arrested on baseless grounds, are still awaiting trial which put in dock not just the government but also the judicial system.
Ever since the BJP has come to power, there has been a tendency to brand a certain section of people, especially peaceful dissenters, and students, as anti-nationals, urban Naxals, or even terrorists. Various forms of hate campaigns, misinformation, and trolling are hurled at certain communities of our society by the people who exercise power, and their supporters.
There is a constant effort to push back the upliftment of minority communities. Look at the discontinuation of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship, a scholarship whose biggest beneficiaries were students from the Muslim community. Look at the Hijab ban in Karnataka where Muslim students were denied the basic right to education. The strategy is simple and scary: rob an entire section of Indian citizens of every basic right so that they won’t be able to raise their voice against this oppressive regime.
As a student who has been manhandled by guards and whose phone has been snatched inside the campus by the directions of the Chief Proctor, and who was detained without knowing the reason, I do not have the answer to where this country is heading to. Everything works at the whims of the current ruling party. There is no space for logic, rationality, arguments, debate, discussion or dissent.
From what to eat, what to watch, and what to wear, everything is dictated by this authoritarian regime! Campuses and students are falling prey to this brutality largely because campus spaces shape the future of the country. Such spaces are fertile grounds for the growth and development of ideas and the intellectual expanse of students. If such spaces are not regulated, controlled and crushed at their initial stages, then they will turn out to be a threat to an authoritarian regime. This is their biggest fear.
Besides, they do not want a section of society, the marginalized and minority communities, to access education, nor do they want to face a citizenry that would raise questions, protest or who would not follow them like puppets.
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