Editor,
After Stan Swamy, Umar Khalid has become the face of the legal maxim ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. He has already spent over 1,170 days in jail after being arrested in connection with the Delhi riots on 14 September, 2020.
Given that his bail plea has again been adjourned to 10 January, 2024, his stay in jail, waiting for justice, is going to cross at least 1,200 days.
Stan Swamy, the 84-year-old Parkinson’s Disease patient, had been arrested on 8 October, 2020. He moved the court, seeking permission to allow a straw and sipper, on 6 November, 2020, so that he could drink liquid. He had to wait for a month to get them, on 4 December, 2020. To get a straw he had to wait for a month. But he could not get bail in his lifetime. Ultimately, death liberated him from jail after nine months of his wait for justice, on 5 July, 2021.
On the other hand, the half-yearly report of Hindutva Watch, a US-based research project, documented 255 incidents of hate speech gatherings targetting Muslims in the first half of 2023. As per the report, one third of these gatherings explicitly called for violence against Muslims.
The judiciary, which is the only institution to redress political bias and excess, is unfortunately overburdened.
Sujit De,
Kolkata