Umar Khalid

Umar Khalid (born as Syed Umar Khalid) is an activist, former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, former leader of Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU. He was allegedly involved in the Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition row and is an accused under the UAPA Act. Khalid is also associated with United Against Hate (UAH), a campaign that was started in July 2017 in response to the series of lynchings.
Early life and education.
Umar Khalid was born in Jamia Nagar, New Delhi and has lived there for the last 30 years. His father, Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, is from Maharashtra, while his mother is from Western Uttar Pradesh. S.Q.R. Ilyas is the National President of the Welfare Party of India and a former member of Students Islamic Movement of India, a banned organisation which has declared Jihad against India.
Khalid studied history at the Kirori Mal College of the Delhi University. He later did his Masters and M.Phil in History at Jawarhlal Nehru University (JNU). His MPhil dissertation was on 'Hos of Singhbhum'.
 Khalid describes himself as a hardcore communist who is not a practising Muslim.
Khalid's PhD thesis was titled “Contesting claims and contingencies of the rule on Adivasis of Jharkhand” and was submitted to the JNU in 2018. Following his PhD, he published a research article titled "Changing Village Authority in an Adivasi Hinterland: State, Community and Contingencies of Rule in Singhbhum, 1830–1897" in the journal Social Scientist in 2018. He earlier presented this paper at the Young Scholars' Conference, organised by the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Activism and Controversies.
JNU Sedition Row.
On 9 February 2016, students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) held a protest on their campus against the capital punishment meted out to the 2001 Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and Kashmiri separatist Maqbool Bhat. During the "fracas" that ensued, a small group of people raised slogans that were generally described as "anti-India" slogans.
Four days after the initial event, the Delhi Police arrested JNU Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy, under section 124 of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860. Five other students: Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Anant Prakash and Ashutosh Kumar, went into hiding after the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar and returned 10 days later. Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya surrendered to the police and were taken into custody.
The arrest and the use of the sedition law were heavily criticized as being a suppression of political dissent. An inquiry committee appointed later by the administration of JNU initially asked 21 students to explain their contravention of university rules. Based on the inquiry, the committee meted out varying punishments to a number of students. Kanhaiya Kumar was fined 10,000 rupees, after which Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were rusticated from the university for one semester.
On 28 February 2020, the Delhi government gave their approval for a trial in the matter.
Due to the High-Level Enquiry Committee that looked into the 9 February 2016 incident protests at the University, JNU initially refused to allow Umar Khalid to submit his PhD thesis in July 2018. Umar Khalid went to the High Court of Delhi related to JNU's refusal to accept his PhD submission. On 24 July 2018 the High Court directed JNU to allow submission of the thesis. On 2 August 2018, JNU accepted the PhD thesis submission.
Bhima Koregaon incident.
Along with Jignesh Mevani, Umar Khalid was booked under a first-information report for giving 'provocative' speeches in Pune. The criminal charges against Mevani and Khalid was for promoting enmity between different groups through their speeches. The Elgaar Parishad rally, where this reportedly happened, was held in Pune to mark the 200th year of the Battle of Koregaon, a place in present-day Pune district, which was fought between the then British Indian Army and the Peshwas.
Assassination attempt.
On 13 August 2018, Khalid narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. The two accused were arrested on 20 August 2018 by police from Fatehabad, Haryana. Before the arrest, the accused had uploaded a video on Facebook on 15 August, saying the attack was an Independence Day gift for India, and they also wanted to highlight the issue of cow protection.
Arrest in 2020.
Umar Khalid was booked under UAPA by Delhi Police for his alleged "provocative speeches" during the visit of American President Donald Trump to India. Delhi police considered his speeches as instigating and facilitating Delhi riots - 2020. On September 14, 2020, Khalid was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell as an alleged conspirator in the Delhi Riots case.
In charge sheets related to the riots, the police have said Khalid met suspended and jailed Aam Aadmi Party's councillor Tahir Hussain and activist Khalid Saifi on January 8 at the Shaheen Bagh sit-in protest site against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)-National Register of Citiznens (NRC) to allegedly plan the riots. He has been interrogated twice in the last two months for his alleged role. The police have also linked Khalid's speeches to the riots. The Delhi Police's special cell is looking into a larger conspiracy case in addition to multiple cases filed in connection with the riots that left 53 people dead and close to 400 injured. Delhi Police has filed supplementary charge sheet against Umar Khalid in connection with Delhi riots 2020. police said this case is a multi-layered conspiracy and a pre-planned riots and there are sufficient evidence available to proceed against Khalid. In early January 2021, a Delhi court agreed with the chargesheet stating, “Hence, there is sufficient material on record to proceed against accused Khalid under Section 204 CrPC.”