A court in Delhi on Thursday granted bail to Sharjeel Imam in connection with allegedly delivering an inflammatory speech at Jamia Milia Islamia which led to violence outside the university in December 2019.
According to a report, Imam, however, will remain in jail as he has been accused in three other cases related to violence in Delhi in February 2019.
On one of the other cases against Imam, in which he has been charged with sedition and under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, his counsel Talib Mustafa said, “Bail arguments for these are over and it has been one and a half months since the order has been reserved by the Karkardooma court.”
On January 25, 2020, an FIR was registered against him by Delhi Police under IPC sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (promoting or attempting to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever) among others.
Sharjeel Imam was arrested from Bihar’s Jehanabad on January 28, 2020.
In April 2020, Delhi Police charged Sharjeel Imam with sedition, alleging his speech promoted enmity between people that led to riots in the Jamia Millia Islamia University area.
Sharjeel Imam had made inflammatory speeches at Jamia University and in Aligarh, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, in its investigation had found.
A probe is being conducted to ascertain his role in the Delhi riots case.
In October 2021, Sharjeel Imam in his bail plea told a Delhi court that he is not a terrorist and his prosecution is a “whip of a monarch rather than a government established by law”.
Another FIR lodged against Imam pertains to December 15 violence at Jamia Millia Islamia where police had clashed with the students, and barged into the university campus. The third FIR is being investigated by the Delhi Police Special Cell. In this case, anti-CAA protesters have been accused of hatching a conspiracy to incite violence and riots.
