JNU student Sharjeel Imam arrested for Delhi riots

New Delhi, Aug 26: The Delhi Police on Tuesday formally arrested ex-JNU student Sharjeel Imam under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in connection with the Delhi riots.

Imam was arrested allegedly for instigating and abetting riots with his speech delivered on December 13. He has been booked under various sections including 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 rumours) of India Penal Code and under the section 13 of the draconian UAPA.

Said to be in his early 30s, Sharjeel Imam has a degree from IIT Mumbai and later moved to Delhi for pursuing research at JNUs Centre for Historical Studies.

He had been involved in organizing the protests at Shaheen Bagh but came into limelight after a video clip went viral wherein he could be heard making some disturbing comments while addressing a gathering at Aligarh Muslim University, following which he was booked under sedition charge in the UP town.

The Delhi police claimed he had given an "inflammatory" speech earlier on the Jamia Milia Islamia campus and lodged an FIR against him in the national capital.

Besides, another case was lodged under the stringent anti-terror law against him in Assam, taking cognisance of Imam's remark that Assam could be "severed from India, even if for a few months" as a result of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

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 northeast from the rest of the country.

Sharjeel Imam was lodged in the Guwahati Central Jail for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches during an anti-CAA protest last year.