Sharjeel Imam, a PhD student in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was arrested from his village in Bihar
A day after he was arrested on sedition charges, JNU PhD scholar Sharjeel Imam has been sent in five-day police custody, a Delhi court was informed Wednesday.
The situation at the Patiala House Courts Complex, where Imam was produced, remained tense as lawyers raised slogans against him, demanding he be hanged, reported PTI. Heavy security was deployed outside the court premises with about 20 police personnel including the CRPF officials.
#UPDATE Sharjeel Imam has been taken to Ram Manohar Lohia (RML). A Delhi Court has sent him to 5-day Delhi Police Crime Branch custody. https://t.co/bhz9vfsKUy pic.twitter.com/gjuUlSBByV
— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2020
Imam was arrested from his village — Kako in Jehanabad district of Bihar — on Tuesday after sedition cases were filed against him in several states for an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act speech he made at Aligarh Muslim University on January 16.
Apart from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have slapped sedition charges against Imam. An IIT-Bombay graduate who is pursuing PhD in Modern Indian History from JNU, Imam was an active volunteer at the Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi till January 2.
Sharjeel Imam’s mother: My son doesn’t need to run from police
According to a purported video of his speech at AMU, Imam said: “If we have 5 lakh people with us, we can cut off the Northeast from India. If not permanently, for one or two months. Put rubble on tracks and roads… Assam aur India katke alag ho jaaye, tabhi ye humari baat sunenge (Once Assam is cut off, then only they will listen to us). We can do that because the Chicken’s Neck corridor (connecting Northeast to rest of India) is dominated by Muslims.”
He also called for more roadblocks in Delhi, like at Shaheen Bagh, to put pressure on the government. Imam had earlier told The Indian Express, “I was saying we should try to peacefully block roads wherever possible. In that context, I said you have to block roads going to Assam. It was basically a call for chakka jam.”
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