Umar Khalid: Zohran Mamdani, the newly-appointed Mayor of New York City, has written a letter to Delhi riots accused after meeting his father.
Mamdani wrote to Umar Khalid, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University student and activist, who has been serving a jail sentence for nearly 5 years because of his role in February 2020 riots.
Khalid’s partner, Banojyotsna Lahiri, shared the undated letter.
What was Umar Khalid charged for?
In September 2020, Khalid was charged by the Indian government under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He has been serving his jail sentence in Delhi’s Tihar jail. Khalid recently got a provisional bail to attend the wedding of his sister and later surrendered to the authorities on December 29.
His father also met Democrat Jamie Raskin of the US Congress separately. On December 30, Raskin and three other US Congress members wrote to Vinay Mohan Kwatra, India’s ambassador to the United States, expressing concerns over the continued pre-trial detention of Khalid.
Zohran Mamdani Swearing In Ceremony
Zohran, the son of Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani and Indian-origin filmmaker Mira Nair, said on his first day that he will not abandon his long-cherished principles for fear of being deemed radical.
