CAA stir: Sharjeel accused of sedition, cops file charge sheet

nNEWDELHI: The Delhi Police on Saturday charged former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam with sedition in a case related to communal riots in north-east Delhi in February following anti-citizen Amendment Act (CAA) protests.

An officer from the Delhi police’s crime branch said the police submitted a charge-sheet against Imam in the Patiala House court on Saturday in the case registered against him on January 25. The police have said that Imam had given a seditious speech at AMU in January.

Besides sections of the stringent sections of stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the police have invoked section 124-A (Sedition), 153(A) (Promoting enmity), 153-A (promoting enmity, hatred between different communities), 153-B (Assertion prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (spreading rumors) of IPC in the charge-sheet.

“In the garb of protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), he (Imam) exhorted people of a particular community to block the highways leading to the major cities and resort to ‘chakka jaam’, thereby disrupting normal life. Also, in the name of opposing CAA he also openly threatened to cut off Assam and other Northeastern states from the rest of the country,” the officer said.

Imam’s lawyer Ahmad Ibrahim denied the allegations and said he has faith in the judicial system. He said they are sad Imam has been incarcerated for six months without any offence, especially when he has been found coronavirus positive.

“We will soon move a bail application in the concerned court. It is a planned way of keeping him in prison as today six months were getting over had the police not filed the charge-sheet, he could have been released on bail by default,” Ibrahim said.

Imam was arrested from Bihar’s Jehanabad on January 28. On April 18, police had filed the first charge-sheet against Imam in connection with the violence outside the Jamia Millia Islamia campus, during which protesters had clashed with the police. In the first chargesheet, police had accused Imam of allegedly instigating riots at the campus during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.

The court is likely to take up the matter for hearing on July 27.

Imam is currently lodged in Guwahati Jail.