New Delhi: In a charged Supreme Court hearing on Thursday, the Delhi Police strongly opposed bail pleas of student activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and others accused in the 2020 North-East Delhi riots larger conspiracy case under the stringent UAPA, warning that “intellectuals who turn terrorists become far more dangerous” than foot soldiers.
Appearing before a bench of Justices Arvind Kumar and N V Anjana, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the Delhi Police, argued that highly educated individuals, funded by public money to become doctors or engineers, pose a grave threat when they engage in anti-national activities. “When intellectuals become terrorists, they are more dangerous than those working on the ground,” Raju submitted, drawing a chilling parallel to a alleged ‘white-collar terror module’ linked to Haryana’s Al Falah University, where agencies recovered 2,900 kg of explosive material from a doctor’s premises.
The police alleged that anti-CAA protests were a mere façade for a deep conspiracy to choke the economy, effect regime change, and internationally embarrass India. This was done by timing violence with then US President Donald Trump’s visit. Video clips of Sharjeel Imam’s speeches were played in court. In these clips, he calls for cutting off Assam from India and paralysing Delhi.
The bench is hearing bail applications by Umar Khalid (in jail for over five years), Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, and others. The hearing remained inconclusive.