# Supreme Court seeks Delhi Police reply on bail plea by riots accused Athar Khan 2026-08-27T09:43:10+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Supreme Court on August 19 issued notice to the Delhi Police on a bail plea by Athar Khan, an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case. Khan is challenging the Delhi High Court's July 7 order that denied him bail. Khan faces charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, IPC, Arms Act, and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. The High Court had cited chats from co-accused Ovais Sultan Khan and a protected witness to indicate his role as a key conspirator. Khan has been in custody since July 2020. He seeks bail citing prolonged incarceration, trial delay, and parity with co-accused Shadab Ahmad, arguing no weapon was recovered from him and no CCTV footage shows his involvement. The Supreme Court will hear the matter next after the police file their response. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The Supreme Court's notice is a routine first step, not a signal of bail being likely. Under UAPA Section 43D(5), bail is nearly impossible unless the court finds the charges prima facie untrue, a high bar that the High Court ruled Khan failed to clear. The case is part of the larger conspiracy trial arising from the February 2020 North-East Delhi riots, which killed over 50 people and injured hundreds. Khan's prolonged detention of over four years without trial is unusual for non-UAPA cases but typical under the anti-terror law, where trials often take five to seven years. The court will weigh his parity argument against co-accused Shadab Ahmad's bail, if granted, and the strength of the digital evidence. The next hearing date depends on Delhi Police filing its counter affidavit. ## Coverage - barandbench.com Straight news report with no slant, leads with the court action and lists facts without commentary This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: 2020 Delhi riots, Athar Khan, Delhi High Court, Delhi Police, Supreme Court, UAPA Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-seeks-delhi-police-reply-on-bail-plea-by-riots-accused-athar-khan/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-seeks-delhi-police-reply-on-bail-plea-by-riots-accused-athar-khan/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/