A Delhi court has sought response from the city police on fresh regular bail applications filed by activists Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid in the larger conspiracy case related to the 2020 riots, several months after the Supreme Court had rejected their petition.Additional Sessions Judge Sumedh Saini issued a notice to the Delhi Police and listed the matter for hearing on July 4. Both applications were filed after the Supreme Court declined to grant them bail on January 5 in the case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). In his plea, Imam contended that more than six months had elapsed without any meaningful progress in the trial since the Supreme Court order. He argued that the proceedings on the framing of charges remained incomplete despite him having spent nearly six years in custody.Imam further claimed that he was not in Delhi after the second week of January 2020 and was already in judicial custody in another case before the communal violence erupted in northeast Delhi in February that year.Khalid, in his separate bail plea, similarly cited prolonged incarceration and delay in trial, stating that he had remained in custody for nearly six years without charges being framed. He argued that the trial was unlikely to begin in the near future given the large number of accused persons, witnesses and documents involved in the case.The plea also referred to observations made by the Supreme Court in a May 18 order in another terror-related case, where the court stressed that anti-terror laws should not result in indefinite detention.Khalid argued that these subsequent judicial developments constituted a change in circumstances, making his fresh bail application maintainable despite the earlier rejection.