JNU student Sharjeel Imam has been charge-sheeted for allegedly giving a seditious speech and instigating the anti-CAA ‘riots’ that took place in Jamia Millia Islamia on 15 December 2019, the Delhi Police said on Saturday, 18 April.
Imam had been arrested for ‘instigating and abetting Jamia riots’ from Bihar's Jehanabad on 28 January for allegedly making inflammatory speeches regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi and in Aligarh.
He had surrendered to the Delhi Police and had subsequently been placed under arrest.
“We have not gone through the complete charge-sheet that was filed on 17 April 2020 by Delhi Police. After going through it, we will take the appropriate measures,” Imam's lawyer Ahmad Ibrahim said, according to ANI.
The Delhi Police said that on 15 December 2019, riots broke out after a protest march organised by students of Jamia against the CAA. It said these riots broke out in New Friends Colony and Jamia Nagar areas.
What Did Sharjeel Imam Say?
Imam was slapped with a sedition case after his alleged speech wherein he could be heard speaking about ‘cutting off’ Assam and the northeastern States from the rest of India as part of anti-CAA protests, had gone viral.
An FIR was registered against Imam by the Delhi Police on 25 January under IPC sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting or attempting to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever) among others.
On 15 December, the university in Delhi had turned into a battlefield, with students alleging that police entered the campus and used brute force to contain protests against the CAA, including against students in their hostels and the library.
Dozens of students were detained from the campus, and at least 60 – including students and policemen – were injured in the violence.
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