New Delhi, Sep 02: Activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and eight others, who are behind bars for last five years, were on Tuesday denied bail by the Delhi High Court in an anti-terror law case linked to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in the national capital.

“All the appeals are dismissed,” a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur held while acting on the bail pleas of Khalid, Imam, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima and Shadab Ahmed.

A different bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar rejected the appeal of Tasleem Ahmed against a bail rejection order of the trial court.

Khalid, Imam and several others were booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of IPC for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence erupted during the protests against the CAA and NRC.

The accused persons have been in jail since 2020 and they moved the high court against a trial court order dismissing their bail pleas.

The prosecution opposed the bail pleas saying it was not a case of spontaneous riots but a case where riots were “planned well in advance” with a “sinister motive” and “well-thought-out conspiracy”.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the prosecution, then contended it was a conspiracy to defame India on a global level and merely citing long incarceration was no ground for bail.

He argued the intention behind the February 2020 riots was to globally defame the nation through a “well-planned and orchestrated” criminal conspiracy by the accused persons.

Delhi Police argued that it was not a spontaneous riot but a well-organised act planned in advance in the capital of the country, aimed at a particular day and time.

Imam’s counsel, however, argued he was “completely disconnected” with the place, time and co-accused persons, including Khalid.

Speeches and WhatsApp chats of Imam, who was arrested on August 25 2020, never called for any unrest, it was argued.

While challenging the bail rejection orders of the trial court, Imam, Khalid and others cited their long incarceration and parity with other co-accused who were granted bail.

The prosecution alleged Imam, in his public addresses, propagated the idea of chakka jam as the plan of action to paralyse the government while saying “confrontational violence” had to take place.

It was alleged the protests were part of a conspiracy of the accused persons to cause violence at the time of the visit of then US President Donald Trump.

Khalid, a former JNU student, was arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020 whereas Ahmed was arrested on June 24, 2020.

Haider was a Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) youth wing leader and Jamia Millia Islamia student who has been in custody since his arrest on April 1, 2020.

Fatima was a student activist who had organised the protest site in Seelampur and was a local resident. According to her lawyer, while she was present at the chakka jam held at Jafrabad, the same was peaceful. She was arrested on April 4, 2020.

‘United Against Hate’ founder Khalid Saifi, who was arrested on February 26, 2020, claimed he was merely present at the Jantar Mantar protest site.

The police arrested Ahmed, Rehman, Mohd Saleem and Athar on June 11, April 26, June 24 and June 29, 2020, respectively.

The bail pleas of Imam, Saifi, Fatima and others, were pending in the high court since 2022 and were heard by different benches from time to time.

All the accused persons denied the prosecution’s allegations.

Delhi Police opposed the bail applications of all accused, saying the communal violence of February 2020 was a case of “clinical and pathological conspiracy”.

Speeches by Khalid, Imam and co-accused created a sense of fear with their common pattern of reference to CAA-NRC, Babri mosque, triple talaq and Kashmir, the police alleged.

The police contended that in a case involving such “grave” offences, the principle of “bail is the rule and jail is the exception” could not be invoked.

It also denied any “attempt by the prosecution” to delay the trial court proceedings, saying the right to speedy trial was not a “free pass”.

New Delhi, Sep 02: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers huge opportunities, and it is only going to increase jobs in the country.

He also said, “I have told my office, every person at decision-making levels, has to have the latest version of AI, ChatGPT or whatever else is available, on their phones or their laptops.

“So we are going to use it, but with a condition that any input they make should have at the bottom, that it has been generated or prepared with the support of AI…and has been validated for,” he said here at an industry chamber event.

The minister said that it is an idea whose time has come.

India is a nation which is always willing to adopt new technologies, he said, adding that there will be a few naysayers who would write that technologies like AI would have a terrible impact on jobs.

But, one should not be deterred by that, he said.

“AI will have its role…there will be the problem of unethical use of AI, so human intervention will be required to address that…This is only going to increase jobs…and Indians are agile and very smart..So I look upon this as a great opportunity; we must adopt it,” he said.

He added that there could be short-term blips till unethical use or other problems come, but in the long run, it will be great for India.

In February, the finance ministry directed its officers not to download or use AI tools and apps such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek in office computers and devices, saying they pose confidentiality risks to data and documents.

On March 27, Union minister Jitendra Singh said that there is no specific prohibition on the use and adoption of AI-based tools by any government departments as this is an emerging technology with great potential in citizen-oriented web applications.

However, government functionaries are expected to exercise due diligence and caution to ensure safety, security and confidentiality of public information while using any digital technology or platform, he has said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.