Mr. Khalid, an activist who first gained prominence in 2016 when he was charged with sedition for organizing a protest at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) over the 2013 hanging of a Kashmiri man, has faced multiple legal challenges in the years since. Along with another student, he surrendered to the police and was granted bail months later. It placed on hold the colonial sedition law in 2022, halting trials till a decision was made regarding the validity of the law.
He first rose to prominence in 2016 when he was booked for sedition for participating in a protest at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi protesting the hanging of a young Kashmiri man in 2013. He along with another student had given himself up to the police and was granted bail subsequently.
In 2022, the Supreme Court temporarily suspended the colonial-era sedition law, putting all the ongoing trials on hold until it could decide on its legality. But in September 2020, Khalid was arrested again, this time for being a “key conspirator” in the violent Delhi riots of February 2020, which had claimed 53 lives, most of them Muslims. These riots had broken out as part of widespread protests against a contentious citizenship law. Khalid has, however, been denied all allegations, asserting that he participated only in a peaceful protest.
The young student has since the time of his arrest spent his life in a maximum-security prison with two cases filed by the police. One was withdrawn but his trial was not commenced for the second as he was thrice barred from getting released on bail. The police used the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), an extremely draconian anti-terror law that is very difficult to secure bail under and results in detention without trial for many months.
