New Delhi, Sept. 12 -- The Supreme Court will on Friday hear bail pleas filed by student activists Sharjeel Imam, former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Umar Khalid, and others accused in the alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots. A bench of justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria will take up the petitions challenging the Delhi High Court September 2 verdict that rejected their bail pleas. The high court bench of justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur (since retired) had dismissed the pleas of nine accused, holding that their roles in the conspiracy appeared "prima facie grave." The seven others whose pleas were rejected by the high court include student activist Gulfisha Fatima, United Against Hate founder Khalid Saifi, Athar Khan, Mohd Saleem, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Meeran Haider, and Shadab Ahmed, relying on the roles assigned to them by investigators in what was described as a coordinated conspiracy culminating in the riots. Of these, Fatima and Haider have also appealed in the top court, with their petitions listed before the same bench. Imam, the first to file an appeal, has argued that he has spent over five years and six months in custody since his arrest on January 28, 2020. Khalid, arrested on September 13, 2020, has similarly sought bail on the grounds of prolonged incarceration. Both contend that they remain in jail due to systemic delays in trial proceedings, which is beyond their control. The bail plea highlighted the near improbability of the trial concluding soon as an additional ground for seeking bail. The accused face charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a stringent anti-terror law. The Delhi Police, represented by solicitor general Tushar Mehta and special public prosecutor Amit Prasad, argued that the conspiracy was carefully designed to appear as civil protests while concealing violent intent....