New Delhi: As jails look to decongesting amid the second wave of Covid-19, student activists charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for purportedly "conspiring to incite" the north-east Delhi riots last year will not be walking out of jail as Covid spreads inside "alarmingly".
None of these undertrials have been able to get relief in the Special Cell's "main conspiracy" case, one that has many holes pointed out in numerous media reports. As per High Powered Committee (HPC) conditions, UAPA accused do not meet the criteria to be released from jail on interim bail in light of the Covid threat.
Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, who recently tested positive for Covid-19, has been granted bail in all but the UAPA case. In the other case where he got bail, the court said the evidence against him was "scanty".
Pinjra Tod founding members and JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita too have secured bail in all but the UAPA case. Both were arrested on May 23 in a case pertaining to the violence at Jafrabad, where they were protesting against the CAA-NRC. No evidence, the two got bail a day later but re-arrested in another Jafrabad-related case with murder charges.
Kalita was held in one other case where she got bail in light of "no direct evidence". Narwal and Kalita also got bail in the common Jafrabad case they were accused in but were re-arrested for the UAPA case.
Narwal's bail plea is pending in Delhi High Court since April 28 while Kalita's since April 27. Narwal was recently granted 3 week's interim bail for the last rites of her father, who died of Covid while she was in jail.
MBA graduate and anti-CAA activist Gulfisha Fatima, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) student Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shifa Ur Rehman, President of Jamia Alumni Association, and JMI PhD student Meeran Haider too are just facing the one hurdle of the UAPA case.
Tanha's bail order in the UAPA case has been reserved by the Delhi High Court since March 18.
Sharjeel Imam, a PhD scholar at JNU, was also arrested in August last year for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches against CAA-NRC and booked under UAPA "larger conspiracy case" where he still remains incarcerated.
JMI student Safoor Zargar is currently out on interim bail in the UAPA which was granted to her on account of childbirth. She has got regular bail in the other case against her.
Throughout their time in prison, these student activists have time and again apprised the court of the lack of medical facilities inside jail. The HPC recently stated that the condition inside prisons is becoming "alarming" and urgent steps should be taken to curb the spread of infection by releasing inmates. DG Prisons had said that 319 prison inmates have contracted Covid as of May 4 while five had passed away. In jails meant for 10,026, Delhi's prisons were housing 19,679 inmates.
Their families have asked why the accused are not being released despite the Covid scare inside jails. "So many prisoners are being released which involve gangsters, murderers... these people are peaceful students... what harm will they cause if they are released for some time... Umar has tested Covid negative now but it was only after court's intervention that he was tested... prison authorities were not bothered about his health," Umar Khalid's mother Sabiha Khanum told Millennium Post.
Asif Iqbal Tanha's mother, Jahanara, said, "I'd be really grateful if he's let out for some time especially during this time...he keeps saying that he's doing fine...I hope I can meet him once he's released."