Patna: Bihar and Delhi police officers on Tuesday noon clashed verbally in public over credit to arrest the JNU student Sharjeel Imam who was facing charges of sedition in Assam, UP and Delhi.
A team of Delhi police arrested Imam ,a PhD student of JNU from Kako in Jahanabad district.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar claimed Bihar police had extended assistance to Delhi police. Nitish also appealed 'now attempts be made to normalise the situation following anti-CAA agitations.
Eyewitnesses said Bihar police and Delhi police clashed in presence of imam over jurisdiction too and each of them tried to take credit.
The Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested JNU student Sharjeel Imam, booked in sedition case, from Jahanabad in Bihar.
"We have arrested Sharjeel Imam from Jehanabad," said Rajesh Deo, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch.
The force had deployed five teams to locate Imam, a resident of Bihar. Raids were conducted in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi.
The Crime Branch of Delhi police had, on Sunday, booked Imam, the co-ordinator of the Shaheen Bagh protests, for his controversial "cut off Assam from India" speech that he allegedly made a few days ago at the protest site.
At the same time, a case had been registered against Imam by the Uttar Pradesh police for his controversial speech delivered during the students protest at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on January 16 against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The JNU scholar was wanted by the police of several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi.
Assam Police had earlier registered an FIR against him for allegedly inciting people to "cut off" Assam from the rest of India. Arunachal Pradesh police too followed suit, registering a case against him for his inflammatory speeches.
Earlier, on Tuesday, his brother was picked up by police in Delhi amid attempts to trace Imam.
While the police did not divulge details, residents of Malik Tola locality in Kako police station area, where Imam's ancestral house is situated, claimed that a heavy police contingent had raided the premises at about 4 am. Reportedly, they took Muzammil Imam, the younger brother of the JNU research scholar and another person into custody for questioning.
The police had raided Imam's ancestral home on Sunday night after "help was sought by central agencies".
Said to be in his early 30s, Sharjeel Imam has a degree from IIT-Bombay and later moved to Delhi to pursue research at JNU's Centre for Historical Studies.
