Anti-CAA Violence: Delhi Court Sends Sharjeel Imam To Judicial Custody

A Delhi court on Tuesday sent Sharjeel Imam, who has been named as an “instigator” by the Delhi Police in its charge sheet on violent protests against the amended citizenship act at New Friends Colony last year, to judicial custody till March 3. Protestors had torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with police in New Friends Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia during the demonstration against the CAA on December 15, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and fire fighters injured. Imam was arrested on sedition charges last month.

The Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur, naming Imam as an instigator of the violence.

It said it has attached CCTV footage, call detail records and statements of over 100 witnesses as evidence in the charge sheet.

The court had on Monday sent Imam to one-day custody of Delhi Police in the case.

Who is Sharjeel Imam?

Pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies in JNU, Sharjeel Imam allegedly made the controversial remark during a protest against the citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens. "If we have 5 lakh organised people then we can permanently cut north-east from India or at least for one month. Disrupt the root so that they cannot even remove it for a month. It is our responsibility to isolate Assam from India, then only they will listen to us," Shaheen Bagh Coordination committee chief Sharjeel Imam could be heard saying in the video that was tweeted by BJP’ national spokesperson Sambit Patra. “We may come to know that in 6-8 months all Bengalis have been killed - Hindu or Muslim. If we want to help Assam, then we will have to stop the way to Assam for the Indian Army and other supplies," Imam had said in the viral clip.

The JNU researcher had allegedly called for a large-scale "disruptive chakka-jaam" in Delhi to grab international's media attention. In a pamphlet, a copy of which was with News Nation, the former organiser of the Shaheen Bagh protest, allegedly wrote: "Thousands of Muslim youths are ready to disrupt Delhi which will give international media attention to our issue."

"This law is unconstitutional and intends to disfranchise Muslims and put them in detention camps. It has already started in Assam and will follow elsewhere... Kashmir, Babri and now CAA, there are more than enough grounds for a strong reaction from Muslims across India."

The police have claimed that the pamphlet was printed and distributed in mosques on December 14, and the violence in and outside Jamia campus took place on December 15.