On November 27, Allahabad High Court granted bail to Sharjeel Imam in the case of provocative speech against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Aligarh Muslim University in December 2019. Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh granted the bail. Detailed order of the bail is still awaited.
Allahabad High Court grants bail to Sharjeel Imam in sedition case filed in Aligarh#SharjeelImam #allahabadhighcourt #Sedition
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) November 27, 2021
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Imam was arrested in 2020 from Jehanabad, Bihar. He is a former Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and one of the key members of the group that organized Shaheen Bagh protests against CAA. Multiple FIRs were filed against Imam for a speech in which he allegedly asked the protestors to cut off Assam from India. FIRs were filed at Police stations in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. He also got bail in the cases filed at Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Imam was accused of making provocative speeches outside Jamia Milia Islamia University in December 2019 that led to violence outside the campus. In April 2020, he was charged with sedition by Delhi Police. According to the FIR, his speech promoted enmity between communities that led to the riots at the area where University is located.
Another FIR in the Jamia case was registered against Imam in the Aligarh district. Both FIRs were registered in January 2020 under Sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (promoting or attempting to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever), 153B (making statements provoking breach of peace) and 505(2) (statements made which are alarming, false intention to create disharmony) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Delhi Court had denied bail
In October 2021, a Delhi Court had denied bail to Imam in the sedition case. Additional Sessions Judge Anuj Agarwal has opined that Imam’s speech at Jamia on December 13, 2019, was communal and divisive that could affect the peace and harmony in the society. The court said, “A cursory and plain reading of the speech dated 13.12.2019 reveals that same is clearly on communal/divisive lines. In my view, the tone and tenor of the incendiary speech tend to have a debilitating effect upon public tranquillity, peace and harmony of the society.”
Sharjeel to remain in jail
Currently, Imam is lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi. He has also been accused in the case linked to the larger conspiracy in the anti-CAA Delhi Riots of February 2020. Though he has been granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in connection to the FIR lodged in the Aligarh district, he was unable to secure bail from the Delhi court last month.
