Citing SC sedition order, Sharjeel Imam moves HC for bail

Sharjeel Imam, who is in detention in other cases also, is accused of giving “inflammatory and instigatigating speeches” against the government on the issue of CAA and NRC, particularly at Jamia Milia Islamia University in December 2019.

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: May 17, 2022 01:10 PM IST

2 min read

JNU student Sharjeel Imam. (File)

JNU PhD student Sharjeel Imam has approached the Delhi High Court with applications seeking interim bail in two sedition cases pending against him since 2019 and 2020, citing the recent Supreme Court order on Section 124A IPC. Hearing a challenge against the provision, the apex court had on May 11 stayed the pending trials, appeals and proceedings under 124A IPC.

“In view of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions, the hindrance raised by the Ld. Special Court in the impugned order stands obviated, and observations surrounding the offence under Section 124-A IPC cannot be taken into consideration in the proceedings against the appellant pending the final outcome of the constitutional challengs to the section,” Imam’s counsel said in an application moved in the already pending appeal against dismissal of his bail application by trial court in the case registered by Crime Branch.

Imam, who is in detention in other cases also, is accused of giving “inflammatory and instigatigating speeches” against the government on the issue of CAA and NRC, particularly at Jamia Milia Islamia University in December 2019. He was arrested from Bihar in January 2020.

Imam has also moved an application in his pending bail plea in a case registered by the New Friends Colony police station in connection with the violent protest which took place in December 2019 against the Citizenship Amendment Bill. “The petitioner meets the proverbial ‘triple test’ for bail. Moreover it is not the case of the prosecution that the Applicant is a flight risk, at risk of influencing any witnesses or tampering any evidence,” the application reads.

The bail appeal in the Crime Branch case is listed before the division bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mirdul, and the bail application in the NFC Police Station case is listed before the bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta. Section 124A or sedition is one of the main charges in both the cases.

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delhi high court JNU sedition Sharjeel Imam supreme court