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Delhi riots larger Conspiracy case accsued Sharjeel Imam has filed a second bail application in Karkardooma Court. His earlier bail was dismissed by the Supreme Court on January 5, 2026.
Fresh bail plea has stated that there are no significant developments even after 6 months of the Supreme Court judgement, and he has been in custody for the last 6 years. Another bail application seeking regular bail has been filed on behalf of Umar Khalid. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sameer Bajpai, on Friday, issued notice to Delhi, seeking a reply on Sharjeel Imam's bail plea from Delhi Police. Earlier, the court had issued notice on the bail plea of Umar Khalid on June 9. The matters have been listed for hearing on July 4. It is stated on behalf of Sharjeel Imam that the second bail application has been filed in light of significant subsequent developments after the Supreme Court judgment of January 5, 2026. The application also highlights that despite the passage of more than six months since the Supreme Court's judgment, there has been no meaningful progress in the trial proceedings, with arguments on charge still remaining incomplete and the applicant continuing to undergo prolonged incarceration of nearly six years in this FIR. Advocate Ahmad Ibrahim has filed the bail application for Sharjeel Imam. It is stated that as at the date of filing of this application, the matter before this trial Court has not progressed even to the stage of framing of a charge. Arguments on the charge have not yet been concluded. As was already noted by the Supreme Court at paragraph 118 in the Gulfisha Fatima case, recording the defence submission that the matter then stood at the stage of arguments on charge and that there was 'no proximate progression to trial in the conventional sense' - that position remains entirely unchanged six months later, the plea said. It is highlighted that a coordinate Bench of the Supreme Court has, in Syed Iftikhar Andrabi vs. National Investigation Agency case, expressly held that the judgment in Gulfisha Fatima has hollowed out the constitutional force of the binding Three-Judge Bench decision in K.A. Najeeb, and has made a clear departure from its ratio. The plea has also highlighted that the very Bench that authored Gulfisha Fatima had, thereafter, passed an order May 22, 2026 in the Tasleem Ahmed case, granted interim bail to the co-accused in the same in the larger conspiracy case and simultaneously referred the entire legal question governing bail under Section 43D (5) UA(P)A to a larger Bench to be constituted by the Chief Justice of India. (ANI)
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