New Delhi, 31 August (H.S.): The Delhi High Court has deferred the hearing on the bail petitions of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who have been accused of conspiring to orchestrate the Delhi riots. A Bench headed by Justice Pratibha Singh directed that the matter be taken up next on September 21.

The hearing on both bail petitions was originally scheduled for August 27. However, after August 27 was declared a court holiday, the matters were listed for hearing on Monday. Cases listed for both August 27 and August 31 came up before the High Court.

On July 31, while hearing Umar Khalid's bail petition, the High Court had issued notice to the Delhi Police.

Earlier, on July 4, the Karkardooma Court had rejected fresh bail petitions filed by Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai had observed that the court was bound to follow the Supreme Court's January 5 order. The Karkardooma Court had held that the bail petitions of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam were not maintainable even before the trial court.

During the proceedings, Trideep Pais, appearing for Umar Khalid, had submitted that the Supreme Court had questioned the rejection of the bail petitions of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the Andrabi case. He had argued that the Supreme Court's earlier direction permitting the accused to approach the court for bail after one year if statements of witnesses had not been recorded was no longer applicable.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar