Supreme Court to hear Sharjeel Imam plea on clubbing multiple FIRs after 2 weeks

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted two weeks time to JNU student Sharjeel Imam to file additional documents in his plea for clubbing multiple FIRs lodged at various places across the country for his controversial speech of cutting chicken neck of the country during anti CAA-NPR-NRC protest.

He faced cases in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah took into consideration plea by Imam's counsel contending that he was required to inspect case files as charge sheets have been filed in some cases. File inspection was not being allowed due to lockdown, he said.

The court posted the matter for consideration after two weeks.

Imam was arrested from his native place at Bihar's Jehanabad district on January 28 after his speech for cutting Chicken's neck, connecting India to North East, had gone viral.
Stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act have also been invoked against him.

There were two speeches made by him one in Jamia Milia Islamia University here and another one in Aligarh Muslim University.

Delhi Police alleged his speech "promoted enmity" between people that led to riots in and around Delhi's Jamia Milia Islamia University on December 15, 2019.

On January 28, Imam was arrested by Delhi Police's crime branch from Bihar's Jehanabad in a sedition case for allegedly making inflammatory speeches in Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh.

The PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's (JNU) Centre for Historical Studies has been booked on sedition and other charges after purported videos of his alleged inflammatory speeches made during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) were circulated on social media.

An FIR was registered against him by Delhi Police on January 25 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (promoting or attempting to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever) among others.

"Two videos came to light, one was on December 13 at Jamia Milia Islamia and other was on January 16 at Aligarh, where it was noticed that Imam had delivered very inflammatory speeches in opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens and such comments can potentially affect religious harmony and weaken the unity and integrity of the country," police had said.

A graduate in computer science from IIT-Mumbai, Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies at the JNU.

(With inputs from PTI)