After arresting former JNU student and The Wire columnist Sharjeel Imam Tuesday from Bihar’s Jehanabad, the Delhi Police returned to the capital with him on Wednesday. Imam, who was booked in a sedition case, was produced in the Patiala House court in Delhi on Wednesday, which sent him on five-day police custody.
The Delhi police investigating the case, have now revealed that Sharjeel Imam’s girlfriend had played a major role in the Shaheen Bagh mastermind’s arrest. The Delhi Police laid a trap to nab Imam with the help of his girlfriend.
According to police sources, Delhi Crime Branch and Bihar Police tracked down Sharjeel’s brother, Muzammil at 4 am on the day of his arrest. On being interrogated Sharjeel’s brother gave out the information about one of Sharjeel’s friend named Imran, whom the police immediately took into custody. Imran further divulged that since the time Sharjeel had been on the run he was only in contact with his girlfriend.
Delhi police then approached Sharjeel’s girlfriend and pressurized her to call Sharjeel and ask him to meet her at Imambara near Malik Tola village. When Sharjeel reached the spot to meet his girlfriend, the police nabbed him.
Contrary to Sharjeel’s claim, the Delhi Police said that Sharjeel Imam ‘has not surrendered but he has been arrested’. Sharjeel Imam had taken to Twitter to write: “I have surrendered to the Delhi Police on January 28, 2020, at 3 pm. I am ready and willing to cooperate with the investigation. I have full faith in due process of law. My safety and security are now in the hands of the Delhi Police. Let peace prevail.”
The Delhi police today also revealed that Imam is highly radicalised and believes that India should be an Islamic state. Delhi Police sources to news agency ANI have said that he has admitted of giving the seditious speech he is accused of and has said that no tampering has been done with the videos.
As per the reports, the police is also examining his connections with Islamic Youth Federation and Popular Front of India (PFI). Further, the police inform that Imam has no remorse over his arrest. All his videos are being sent to the forensic science lab and his social media accounts are being examined, informed the police.
Imam, who masterminded the Shaheen Bagh road blockade to protest against the CAA, was arrested by Delhi Police from Bihar after multiple FIRs were filed against him for his seditious speech. Addressing a gathering at Aligarh, Imam had urged Muslims to come together and cut off the Siliguri Corridor aka the chicken’s neck, which connects the seven northeastern states to rest of India. He had also earlier made provocative speeches where he had asked Muslims to come out and block roads of India and bring it to a standstill so as to get international media attention.
Imam is also a columnist with leftist propaganda website, The Wire.
Interestingly, dreaded terrorist Zakir Musa was betrayed similarly by his girlfriend, which helped the Jammu Kashmir police to nab him leading to his encounter in May last year. Upset with being two-timed, One of Musa’s girlfriend had leaked information regarding his whereabouts to the agencies. This led to his precise tracking, following which he was killed in the encounter.
Moreover, Osama bin Laden, who had redefined the face of terrorism with the deadly attacks on America’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2011, was also allegedly betrayed by his first wife. The third and youngest wife of Osama, Amal had accused his first spouse, Khairiah of betraying the Al Qaeda chief and revealing his location in Pakistan to the US. Amal had described Khairiah as ‘the real killer of Bin Laden’.
