Activist Umar Khalid, who is in jail in the 2020 Delhi riots case, told the High Court on Thursday that merely being part of a WhatsApp group cannot be considered as proof of criminal activity, Bar and Bench reported.

“Merely being on a group is not any indication of anything wrong, in this case I have not even said anything,” Khalid’s legal counsel told the court. “[I] only shared the location of a protest site when someone asked for it. Someone sent me a message. If someone chooses to inform me, it is not attributable to me. Anyway, there was no criminality in the message.”

Advocate Trideep Pais was responding to the Delhi Police’s reference to Khalid’s participation in a WhatsApp group as evidence of criminal conspiracy.

In the chargesheet, the police had alleged that Khalid had “coalesced a coalition of the current government haters that led to the formation of Delhi Protest Support Group on WhatsApp”.

The police had also alleged that the WhatsApp group was formed after Khalid mentored a group of students called “Muslim Students of JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University]” with the help of Sharjeel Imam, another activist, to incite violence.

Pais also alleged that others such as former Delhi Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan and activist Devangana Kalita “have roles far more in terms of involvement than me [Khalid]” and are still out on bail, The Indian Express reported.

Khalid was arrested in September 2020 in connection with the clashes that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The riots left 53 people dead. Most of those killed were Muslims.

Khalid and several other activists have been booked for offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Indian Penal Code, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and the Arms Act.

The Delhi Police claim that the violence in North East Delhi was part of a larger conspiracy to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and was planned by those who organised the protests, including Khalid, against the amended Citizenship Act.

The police also claim that the protesters had secessionist motives and were using “the facade of civil disobedience” to destabilise the government.

In the 200-page chargesheet filed in November 2020, the police specifically alleged that Khalid “remotely controlled” the Delhi riots. They claimed that Khalid had held a “secret meeting” where he allegedly outlined the details to carry out the riots.

The High Court will hear the matter next on March 4.

Also read: The price that Umar Khalid is paying for dissenting in Modi’s India