JNU scholar Sharjeel Imam charged with sedition for Jamia violence

JNU scholar Sharjeel Imam, who was arrested earlier this year after delivering an inflammatory speech against the northeast, was charged with sedition on Saturday (April 18) for allegedly promoting enmity between people that led to riots in the Jamia Millia Islamia University area.

Delhi Police, in its supplementary chargesheet, said “serious riots had broken out in consequence to the protest march organised by Jamia students” against the amended citizenship law on December 15 last year.

“The mob indulged in large-scale rioting, stone-pelting and arson, and in the process destroyed many public and private properties. Cases of rioting, arson and damage to public property were registered in both the police stations. Many policemen and public persons were injured in the riots,” the agency told in its final report filed before the chief metropolitan magistrate court. The cases were registered in New Friends Colony and Jamia Nagar police stations.

In the New Friends Colony case, Imam was arrested for “instigating and abetting the Jamia riots, due to his seditious speech delivered on December 13, 2019. During investigation, on the basis of evidences collected, sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 A IPC (promoting enmity between classes) were invoked in the case,” police said.

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The police previously filed a charge sheet against the rioters arrested by the SIT. Further investigation in the case is under way, they said.

Imam was arrested from Bihar’s Jehanabad on January 28. He had been involved in organising protests at Shaheen Bagh but came into limelight after a video showed him making controversial comments before a gathering at Aligarh Muslim University, following which he was booked under sedition charges.

Delhi police had also booked him for an “inflammatory” speech on the Jamia campus. Another case was filed against Imam in Assam under the stringent anti-terror law for his remark that Assam could be “severed from India, even if for a few months” as a result of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Police in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh had also lodged FIRs against the JNU scholar over his speech in which he threatened to “cut off” Assam and the rest of the northeast from the country.

(With inputs from agencies)