In April, the Delhi Police asked a court in the capital for permission to produce former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar K...
In April, the Delhi Police asked a court in the capital for permission to produce former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid and activist Khalid Saifi in handcuffs at their hearings in the cases related to the 2020 Delhi riots cases in which they are both accused. The police claimed that the men are high-risk prisoners.
The cases in which they have been arrested are connected to clashes that broke out in North East Delhi in February last year between people supporting of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence left at least 53 people dead and hundreds injured. The Delhi Police filed as many as 755 FIRs related to the riots. They arrested more than 1,800 people, including lawyers and activists such as Khalid and Saifi.
The Delhi Police plea was very specific about how Khalid and Saifi should be handcuffed. Not only did the police want the two in fetters, the plea asked permission to use “handcuff in both hands from backside”.
When the court on April 22 took up the plea, it expressed its dissatisfaction with the police reqiest, stating that it seemed to be without any merit. Nevertheless, the court asked f the police delineating the reasons for such a request....
