On Monday, a Delhi court framed fresh charges, including sedition and the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), against student leader Sharjeel Imam in relation to his speeches against CAA at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia, Live Law reported.
Meanwhile, additional sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the regular bail plea filed by Imam in case relating to alleged inflammatory speech made by him at Aligarh Muslim University and in Delhi’s Jamia.
The court, today, framed Imam with charges under sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, along with section 13 (UAPA).
Imam was booked two years ago, on 25 January 2020, at the crime branch police station under Section 124-(A), 153A, 505 of the IPC with regard to speeches made in the Jamia Millia Islamia area on 13 December 2019. Another speech was uploaded on social media in which Imam is seen addressing a gathering at Aligarh Muslim University.
Sharjeel Imam’s lawyer Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, as per Live Law, submitted that his speech was clean of any intention or call to violence, and the prosecution’s argument was only rhetoric, having no bias.
In November last year, Imam was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in connection with a case filed against him for a speech he gave at the Aligarh Muslim University in January 2019, during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Pertinently, Imam is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.