The TLDR: The Delhi police arrested Khalid—who is an activist and an alum of Jawaharlal Nehru University—under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). It is the latest in a string of arrests targeting people who protested the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) back in February. They have now been charged with inciting the violence in Delhi in February which left at least 53 dead, including 36 Muslims. 

Khalid’s arrest created a greater stir since he is a well-known name. But it also reveals how the government has been indiscriminately using UAPA to designate any kind of dissent as a serious crime.

A quick timeline for context: Since it’s easy to lose track of the events that led us to this place, here’s a quick recap:

• On December 11, 2019, the government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act—which offered citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Christians from neighbouring countries. The notable exception: Muslims. While the government claimed there was no discrimination intended, the law clearly marked Muslims as a ‘special category’ of citizens, excluded from the rights of others.
• By mid-December, protests against the CAA had spread across the country—the most notable location being Shaheen Bagh. These were peaceful demonstrations where protesters staged extended sit-ins by blocking roads and neighbourhoods.
• Soon after, the police stormed JNU, Jamia Millia and Aligarh Muslim University campuses on various grounds—which in turn intensified the protests.
• Hindutva activists and politicians (See: Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma) were also targeting these demonstrations—threatening violence 
• In February, the confrontation between anti-CAA protesters and Hindutva groups resulted in widespread violence in North Delhi—triggered most likely by this inflammatory speech made by BJP leader Kapil Mishra. (It is among four key such clips here). 
• Since the lockdown in late March, the Delhi police have been rounding up protesters. They are accused of deliberately conspiring to incite the riots. 
• So far, 1,575 people have been arrested in 751 cases. Over 250 chargesheets have been filed in the riots related cases against 1,153 people.

Who was Khalid in all this?

Umar Khalid became a national figure back in 2016—when he and Kanhaiya Kumar organized a JNU event to protest the hanging of Afzal Guru (convicted of masterminding the terrorist attack on the Parliament in 2001). At the time, he was arrested and charged with sedition—because anti-India slogans were allegedly raised at the event. But he was let out on bail. 

Point to note: Khalid spoke at several anti-CAA rallies, but was not one of the prominent leaders or organisers.

So what is he accused of?

The FIR filed by the police is based on information provided by an unnamed informant—who told them that Khalid hatched a “premeditated conspiracy” with three others to incite violence. And to gather and store firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles, and stones at homes in various parts of the city.

Here are key parts of the FIR:

“Khalid allegedly gave provocative speeches at two different places and appealed to the citizens to come out on the streets and block the roads during the visit of US President Donald Trump to spread propaganda at the international level about how minorities in India are being persecuted.”

Also this:

“The co-accused, Danish, was given the responsibility to gather people from different places to take part in the violence… Women and children were made to block the roads under the Jafrabad Metro Station on February 23 to create tension amidst the neighbourhood people. The same day, schools of minority children (were) vacated under their premeditated conspiracy.”

Finally, the police note that Khalid was also cited in similar charges brought against former AAP leader Tahir Hussain. Apparently, on January 8, Khalid met with Hussain at the Shaheen Bagh protest—when Khalid told Hussain “to be prepared for something big/riots at the time of Trump’s visit” and that he and others anti-CAA activists “will help him (Hussain) financially.”

Umm, that seems a bit weak…

Senior police officials insist that the road blocks are a damning sign of a conspiracy. At a webinar, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pramod Singh Kushwaha said:

“When we started investigating the Delhi riots, we first saw all the sites and found a common pattern that traffic jam was started at all the sites simultaneously. It was the first indicator that there was a conspiracy due to which it all started.”

The other claim: Khalid and others made speeches in order to draw crowds to the protests—which served as a convenient distraction:

“People kept on going to the protest sites again and again and they talked about the CAA-NRC so that more and more people would come there and it would look like a CAA-NRC protest was going on.”

But, but, but: when Khalid was produced in court after his arrest, even the special prosecutor admitted that there wasn’t much evidence in the FIR. But he insisted that the lack of detail was necessary in order to maintain the “sanctity of the investigation”—as required by UAPA.

Also this: Khalid was finally remanded to 10 days of judicial custody so he can be confronted with “data running into 11 lakh pages.” But as his lawyer pointed out, the application for his detention doesn’t even mention the need to “confront” Khalid, or what’s in these “11 lakh pages.”

Wait, what does the UAPA require?

Here’s how this law works:

• UAPA allows any person who is charged with “unlawful activities” to be declared a “terrorist”—and arrested under those charges. 
• Yes, the definition of what is unlawful or who is a terrorist is terrifyingly vague. 
• And no—thanks to a 2019 Supreme Court ruling—the authorities can simply declare that they have evidence to make a prima facie case. The courts have limited authority to challenge that evidence. 
• Evidence can be withheld for ‘national security’ purposes at the time of the arrest. 
• And the person can be held for extended periods of time without a proper charge sheet or bail.

Big point to note: This is also why UAPA cases are thrown out once they are brought to trial. But by then, the person has spent months on end—punished for a non-existent crime.

The bottomline: Umar Khalid’s arrest isn’t just about the CAA or protests—or whether one supports either. This is about living in a country where each of us can be declared guilty until proven innocent. That should scare all of us.

Reading list

• Quint has a good overview of UAPA. Indian Express explains why the latest amendment is the most worrying. 
• Mint traces its history of a law that has become increasingly draconian with each amendment—starting under the UAPA after the 26/11 attacks. 
• Times of India looked at 14 UAPA cases in Punjab—most of which are based on non-existent evidence. 
• This 2016 Caravan piece offers a sympathetic profile of Umar Khalid. 
• Also read: Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro’s unhappy letter to the Delhi police. 
• Need more reason to worry? The Uttar Pradesh government just announced the creation of a special force that “can, without the prior permission of any magistrate and without any warrant, arrest any person."