Delhi court denies statutory bail to Sharjeel Imam in sedition case

A Delhi court on Saturday denied statutory bail to activist Sharjeel Imam in a sedition and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act case, reported Bar and Bench.

On January 30, the Delhi High Court asked a trial court to decide by February 17 on Imam’s statutory bail application.

Imam, a former scholar at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, was arrested on January 28, 2020. He was eligible for statutory bail as he has spent four years in jail, out of the maximum sentence of seven years in the sedition case.

If denied bail by the trial court, the High Court had said Imam could file a fresh application.

The case pertains to alleged seditious speeches made by Imam at the Jamia Millia Islamia university in 2019 and the Aligarh Muslim University in 2020 during protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.

The police have alleged that in his speech at the Aligarh Muslim University in 2020, Imam had asked those protesting against the amended citizenship law to “cut off Assam from India” by occupying the “Muslim-dominated chicken’s neck”.

The so-called chicken’s neck, or the Siliguri corridor, refers to a very narrow track of land around Siliguri city in West Bengal that connects India’s North East to the rest of the country.

Imam’s lawyers have argued that the statement was a way of calling for a...

Read more