2020 Delhi Riots A ‘Regime Change Operation’, Police To Tell Supreme Court
In an explosive claim, the Delhi Police is set to tell the Supreme Court that the 2020 riots in the national capital were not a spontaneous outburst but a pre-planned “regime change operation” aimed at undermining India’s sovereignty. This assertion is part of a 177-page affidavit being filed in response to bail pleas from several accused, including student activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam.According to sources, the affidavit argues that the riots were the result of a deep-rooted conspiracy designed to “weaponise public dissent” against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
The police contend that the violence was “organised and calibrated” and followed a nationwide pattern of similar unrest in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Kerala, constituting a “synchronised attempt to destabilise the government through orchestrated violence”.The police have also accused the activists of deliberately delaying trial proceedings by filing “frivolous applications,” calling it a “brazen abuse of process”.
The affidavit is being submitted as the Supreme Court is hearing petitions on the bail pleas and the significant delays in the trial, with some of the accused having been in jail for over five years.The Delhi Police have consistently described Khalid and Imam as the “intellectual architects” of the conspiracy.
Investigators allege that they were among the earliest organizers of the anti-CAA protests in December 2019, mobilizing crowds through speeches and WhatsApp groups that eventually led to the violence. The Delhi High Court had earlier noted that their physical absence from the riot scenes did not absolve them, as the alleged conspiracy was operationalized well before the violence erupted.
The accused, however, have maintained that their actions were a legitimate exercise of their constitutional right to dissent and had no connection to the riots, which left 53 people dead and hundreds injured in February 2020. The Supreme Court is now set to examine the police’s explosive claims as it considers the long-pending bail applications
