A Delhi Court extended the judicial custody of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and Tahir Hussain until February 2. The three were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the charges around the Delhi riots that took place last year. Khalid and Imam were student leaders at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and Tahir Hussain was a Aam Aadmi Party councillor from Nehru Vihar in New Delhi. He was suspended from primary membership of the party in February 2020 after the New Delhi police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against him in the Ankit Sharma murder case last year.
His alleged role in the riots came under the scanner when videos showing the terrace of a four-storey building belonging to Hussain in Chand Bagh which was stocked with petrol bombs and stones and people also using it to throw petrol bombs and stones started surfacing on social media. He was also later arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) along with the Islamist group PFI and some others on the charges of money laundering and alleged funding of the riots.
Khalid and Imam had been arrested in the case for allegedly being part of a premeditated conspiracy in the Delhi riots. A court had previously extended the judicial custody of both Khalid and Imam last year by three days to November 23. During the hearing in the court held through video conferencing, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad who had appeared for the police then said that the mandatory time period of 90 days which is required to complete the probe in the case would be completed by November 23 and the charge sheet had to be filed.
Communal clashes had flared up in north-eastern Delhi on February 24 after violence broke out between the citizenship amendment act supporters and opponents. The clashes left at least 53 people dead and injured about 200 people in the national capital.