New Delhi: Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, who had been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, told a court on Thursday that he was not allowed to step out of his cell and it was in a kind of “solitary confinement”.
Khalid made his submissions directly to the court through video conferencing when he was produced before it on expiry of the term of his judicial custody in the case. On September 24, the court sent Khalid to judicial custody.
“I have not been allowed to step outside at all. I am alone in my cell. No one is allowed to meet me. It is practically sort of [a] solitary confinement. I [have] not [been] well in the last three days. I am feeling discomfort. This is like a punishment. Why am I given this punishment? I reiterate that I need security but it cannot be that I have to be in my cell all day,” Khalid told Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat.
He further said that on Wednesday he was shown an order passed by Additional Superintendent Pradeep Sharma of Jail number 2, in which it was stated that Khalid should not be allowed out of his cell.
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“I request a recall of that order. In the morning, the Jail Superintendent came and asked the jail staff to allow me to go outside. I was allowed to step out for 10 minutes and then after he left, I was not allowed to go outside since then,” Khalid alleged.
The Delhi Police had arrested Khalid in the dead of the night on September 13, on the charge of conspiring to engineer communal violence in Delhi during the visit to India of US President Donald Trump earlier this year. He has also been charged with sedition and 18 other sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder and attempt to murder.
In the meantime, police have dropped their assertion that the conspiracy to trigger violence in northeast Delhi during the visit to India of US President Donald Trump was hatched in a meeting on January 8, 2020.
On Thursday, when his counsel, advocate Trideep Pais, told the court that no adverse steps should be taken against him by the jail authorities for putting forward his grievances, the judge said, “Khalid should not be punished for putting forward his grievances. You should take care of it.”
Judge Rawat also directed Tihar Jail Superintendent to be present before the court on Friday to hear the matter.
The court also pulled up the Assistant Jail Superintendent of Tihar prisons for not un-muting the microphone when Khalid told him that he wanted to speak to the judge.
Khalid said the official told him the microphone will be un-muted if the judge gave the permission for it.
“If an undertrial wants to say something, then un-mute and let him speak or you tell us that he wants to say something,” the judge told the jail official.
The court had on October 17, 2020, directed the Tihar Jail Superintendent to provide adequate and security in judicial custody.
The directions came on an application filed by Khalid seeking adequate security in prison so that he was not harmed by anyone in judicial custody.
