The image of the letter was shared by Banojyotsna Lahiri, a friend of Khalid. Lahiri said Khalid’s parents had met Mamdani during a visit to the United States in December.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has written a letter to jailed activist Umar Khalid, who remains in custody at Delhi’s Tihar Jail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) as his bail plea awaits a Supreme Court ruling, according to social media posts and media reports.
Mamdani, who this week became the first Muslim and Indian-origin mayor of New York City, expressed solidarity with Khalid in a handwritten note that surfaced on social media platform X.
“Dear Umar, I think of your words on bitterness often, and the importance of not letting it consume one’s self,” Mamdani wrote, adding, “It was a pleasure to meet your parents. We are all thinking of you.”
The image of the letter was shared by Banojyotsna Lahiri, a friend of Khalid. Lahiri said Khalid’s parents had met Mamdani during a visit to the United States in December.
Khalid, a former JNU research scholar, was arrested in September 2020 in connection with a larger conspiracy case linked to the Delhi riots earlier that year. While the Delhi High Court has discharged him in one related case, he remains in custody in another case under the UAPA.
His bail pleas have been rejected multiple times.
In December 2025, the Supreme Court reserved its judgment on his bail application.
Mamdani has previously spoken publicly in support of Khalid. In June 2023, at an event in New York held ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States, Mamdani read from Khalid’s prison writings and criticised his continued detention without trial.
At the time, Mamdani, then a member of the New York State Assembly, said Khalid had been jailed for more than 1,000 days under the UAPA despite not having faced trial.
Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, rose to prominence through grassroots political organising and previously served in the New York State Assembly before being elected mayor.
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