Delhi's Karkardooma Court on Monday granted 10 days of interim bail to Sharjeel Imam, one of the key accused in the Delhi riots conspiracy case, on humanitarian grounds — to attend his younger brother's wedding and care for his ailing mother. Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai ordered that the bail will be effective from March 20 to March 30, 2026.

Sharjeel Imam has been in judicial custody since January 2020, arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in conspiring and inciting violence during the Northeast Delhi riots of February 2020 — which claimed 53 lives and left over 700 people injured. The riots broke out amid protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The interim bail is a limited humanitarian concession and does not affect the broader legal proceedings against him. The Supreme Court had refused to grant Sharjeel regular bail as recently as January 2026, and the Delhi High Court had similarly denied him bail last year when he sought release to contest the Bihar Assembly elections.

In a related development, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Arvind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria granted bail to five other accused in the Delhi riots conspiracy case — Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa ur Rehman, and Mohammad Salee among them. However, the bench noted that "the prosecution presented substantial material on record which prima facie establishes that the accused were involved in the conspiracy" — underscoring that bail does not amount to an acquittal or exoneration in the case.