Former JNU student Sharjeel Imam has been granted bail in a sedition case related to a provocative speech in 2019. Additional Sessions Judge Anuj Agrawal of Saket Court in Delhi granted the bail in the case registered at NFC Police station in Delhi.
However, Sharjeel Imam will remain in jail as there are multiple cases filed against him. According to activist Muzzammil Imam, two more cases against Imam are pending in Delhi.
Bail has been granted to my brother Sharjeel @_imaams by ASJ Saket Court in the FIR No. 242/2019 registered P.S. New Friends Colony, Delhi.
— Muzzammil Imam | مزمل إمام (@imammuzzammil) September 30, 2022
Now 2 more cases remain in Delhi.
The Saket Court judgement came after the Delhi High Court had asked the trial court to consider Sharjeel Imam’s plea seeking relief under section 436-A of the CrPC on the ground that he has been in custody for 31 months after his arrest in the FIR.
As per section 436-A, if an accused spends half of the maximum sentence for the charges in jail under trial, such a person can be released on bail court. Imam is charged under Section 153A (promoting enmity among religious groups) which have a maximum imprisonment of three years. He is also charged under IPC Sections 124A (sedition) which carried maximum life sentence.
Sharjeel Imam was arrested in January 2020 after he delivered several provocative speeches that triggered violence during anti-CAA protests in Delhi and several other states. The current case relates to a speech given on December 2019 in Delhi. According to the police, his speech provoked violence in Jamia Nagar in Delhi on December 15, 2019 during protests against the now enacted Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB).
The mob had damaged public and private properties including several vehicles during the riot in Jamia Nagar. Around 1500 demonstrators blocked the road and did not listen to the people who urged them to clear the road, and four public buses and two police vehicles were set ablaze during the violence.
However, the trial court earlier had said that evidence against Sharjeel Imam was not concrete to prove that he instigated the riots. The court had said that there were gaping holes in the prosecution case against him. But he was denied regular bail in October last year because further examination was needed to ascertain whether his speech amounted to the offence of sedition under Section 124A IPC and promotion of communal disharmony under Section 153A IPC.
Sharjeel Imam is facing other cases for other speeches he gave during the anti-CAA protests, including instigating Islamists to cut of North Eastern region from the rest of the country by blocking the ‘chicken’s neck’ in North Bengal.
