New Delhi:
A Delhi court Wednesday sent JNU student Sharjeel Imam, arrested under the stringent anti-terror law — Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, to judicial custody for 14 days in a case related to communal violence in north east Delhi in February. Imam was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on August 25 for allegedly being part of a “premeditated conspiracy” in connection to the riots during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat sent him to judicial custody for 14 days after he was produced before the court through video conferencing, his lawyer Ahmad Ibrahim said. The court had earlier sent him to police custody for three days in the case.
Pinjra Tod members and JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, Jamia Millia Islamia students Asif Iqbal Tanha and Gulfisha Khatoon, former Congress Councillor Ishrat Jahan, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider, President of Jamia Alumni Association Shifa-Ur-Rehman, suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain, activist Khalid Saifi, and former student leader Umar Khalid have also been booked under the anti-terror law in the case. Umar Khalid has not been arrested in the case yet. The police had claimed in the FIR that Umar and his associates had instigated people to start riots in the area and it was a “premeditated conspiracy”.
Imam was also arrested on January 28 in the case related to violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act near the Jamia Millia Islamia University in December last year. The PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) Centre for Historical Studies has been booked for sedition and other charges after purported videos of his alleged inflammatory speeches made during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) were circulated on social media.
He was also arrested by the Guwahati police in a case registered against him under the UAPA in Assam. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
