BJP asks Congress to apologise after SC denies bail to Umar, Sharjeel

The BJP on Monday said the Supreme Court order denying bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots case is a "big slap" on the Congress' face and demanded that the opposition party apologise for supporting the "tukde-tukde gang".

Calling Khalid and Imam the "poster boys" of divisive forces in India, the BJP claimed that the Congress ecosystem was projecting them as "innocent victims" to protect them.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant bail to Khalid and Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case, saying there was a prima facie case against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

 

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria, however, granted bail to activists Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan, and Shadab Ahmad in the case.

Reacting to the Supreme Court decision, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla wrote on X, "Satyameva Jayate (truth alone triumphs)".

"The Supreme Court has denied bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. Prima facie allegations are true," he said.

The Congress must apologise for its support to the "tukde-tukde gang, from Afzal to Umar and Sharjeel", Poonawalla said.

BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari termed the apex court's decision a "big slap" on the face of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress ecosystem, alleging that they portrayed "tukde-tukde poster boys Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam as innocent victims".

In the court of public opinion and the court of law, Gandhi's "urban Naxals" stand defeated, he charged.