Umar Khalid completes five years in jail
Today, 13 September 2025, marks five years since Umar Khalid, a young human rights defender targeted by the Hindu nationalist BJP government for opposing discriminatory citizenship laws, was imprisoned under a draconian anti-terror law.
Khalid, who was arrested on 13 September 2020, has been booked under the UAPA terror law in a conspiracy case that shifts the blame for the 2020 anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi onto Muslim activists and rights defenders.
Khalid and several of his co-accused Muslim activists were targeted for leading peaceful protests opposing the discriminatory Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019 winter.
Former JNU student is charged under FIR 59/2020 with offenses under the IPC, 1967 Arms Act, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Charges include but are not limited to rioting (Sec. 147 IPC), rioting with a deadly weapon (Sec. 148 IPC), murder (Sec. 302 IPC), attempted murder (Sec. 307 IPC), sedition (Sec. 124A IPC), “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony” (Sec. 153A IPC), unlawful activities (Sec. 13 UAPA), terrorist acts (Sec. 16 UAPA), raising funds for terrorist acts (Sec. 17 UAPA), and conspiracy (Sec. 18 UAPA).
Khalid's bail applications have been rejected at least four times by trial and appellate courts, most recently on September 2, and his petition before the Supreme Court of India was adjourned 14 times before he withdrew it.
On Friday, the Supreme Court of India adjourned the hearing of bail petitions moved by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, and Meeran Haider to September 19.
On April 15, 2021, a Delhi court granted Khalid bail. Khalid, however, was forced to remain in prison in light of other charges against him.
On December 12, 2022, a Delhi court granted Khalid temporary bail from December 23 to December 30 to attend his sister's wedding.
In a joint statement issued ahead of the fifth anniversary of Khalid’s arrest, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights, Forum Asia, Front Line Defenders and the World Organisation Against Torture said his detention “exemplifies the derailment of justice in India.”
Earlier, Khalid’s mother Dr Sabiha Khanum said that her “son is in jail not for himself but for the nation.”
Watch the full interview here:
