India's Supreme Court denies bail to two Muslim student activists

India's Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to two prominent student activists, who have been languishing in jail for more than five years since their arrest.

The court dismissed the bail pleas filed by Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who were taken into custody in connection with the riots that broke out in Delhi in 2020. The clashes left 53 people dead, most of them Muslims.

Investigators have accused the two of planning and provoking the unrest. They were booked under stringent anti-terrorism laws, which place strict limits on the granting of bail.

Both Khalid and Imam have consistently rejected the allegations and have made several unsuccessful attempts over the years to secure their release. At the same hearing, the Supreme Court allowed bail to five other activists who were arrested in the same case.

The violence erupted during demonstrations against a controversial citizenship law that was later described by the United Nations as “fundamentally discriminatory”.

According to the court’s order, a two-judge bench said that the bail requests of the seven accused could not be treated alike, as they were “not on equal footing as regards culpability”.

The judges said the allegations against Khalid and Imam were different in nature from those faced by the other accused, and therefore declined to grant them bail.

The court also directed that Khalid and Imam may file fresh bail applications only after a period of one year.

Khalid earned his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi in 2019, while Imam was pursuing his doctoral studies at the same institution when he was arrested. Both are 37 years old.

The prolonged detention of the activists has drawn significant attention within India as well as from international observers.