Opposing former JNU student leader Umar Khalid’s bail plea in the Delhi riots “larger conspiracy” case, the prosecution on Monday told a city court that BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s speech had not surfaced when the accused were discussing how to “incite violence” in their WhatsApp conversations.
Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad argued before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat that the accused only used Mr. Mishra’s name to “build a narrative”.
“There was a proposal to incite violence on February 17, 2020, which is the time when you [accused] drew a narrative that Kapil Mishra came there [north-east Delhi]... Where was Kapil Mishra then? He had not even surfaced anywhere and your proposal to incite violence had surfaced... there was your [accused’s] proposal to block roads and incite violence,” SPP Prasad said.
During the course of the hearing, the prosecution also described how the riots were “planned and executed”. “You have a grievance against a legislation, you are well within your rights to express your grievance, but there was no reason to cause damage and destruction of property and attack police officers,” Mr. Prasad told the court.
The prosecution also argued how the “first phase of riots during late 2019 and January 2020 was a failure” and how the second phase, in February 2020, “was used to execute the conspiracy”. To this effect, Mr. Prasad showed the court that there was a common pattern between FIRs lodged in December 2019 and those lodged in 2020, where the sole intention was to “attack police personnel and cause destruction to public property”.
“People involved in both the phases were common... meetings which happened, Umar Khalid was sitting there with Sharjeel Imam. Presence of Sharjeel Imam was admitted in his own speech, Umar Khalid’s presence was there in the picture,” SPP Prasad argued, referring to the chargesheet.
He further argued that the Jamia Awareness Campaign Team was constituted to create awareness about the protest sites and mobilise people for that purpose. Mr. Prasad told the court that several groups such as Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) and Delhi Protest Support Group (DPSG) were formed on WhatsApp where the accused persons were coordinating information about the protest sites.
“From United Against Hate [campaign against hate crimes], Umar Khalid was there, Devangana [Kalita] and Natasha [Narwal] from Pinjra Tod were also there. People from JCC were also there in DPSG. The idea was to point out that there were supervisors,” the prosecution submitted.
Calling it a “conspiracy of silence” behind the Delhi riots with the main agenda to completely put the system under “paralysis”, the prosecution argued: “This is incitement to violence and silence. I will show from the record why this is a conspiracy of silence…”
The prosecution will continue its argument in the next hearing on Wednesday.
