Allahabad HC grants bail to Sharjeel Imam

The Allahabad High Court has granted bail to Sharjeel Imam in a case pertaining to alleged provocative speech against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at the Aligarh Muslim University in 2019.

The bail was granted by Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh of the Allahabad High Court on Saturday.

A detailed order on Imam's bail is yet to be issued.

Sharjeel Imam, a former JNU student and one of the key organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest, was arrested last year from Bihar's Jehanabad.

In his speech, Imam had purportedly asked protesters to cut off from India.

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Police in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh had also lodged FIRs against the JNU scholar. However, the activist got bail in the Assam and Arunachal Pradesh cases.

Sharjeel Imam was also accused of making inflammatory speeches which led to violence outside Jamia Milia Islamia University in December 2019.

In April, Delhi Police charged him with sedition, alleging his speech promoted enmity between people that led to riots in the Jamia Millia Islamia University area.

An FIR was registered against him in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh district and by Delhi Police in January 2020 under 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), 153B (making statements provoking breach of peace) and 505(2) (statements made which are alarming, false intention to create disharmony) of the Indian Penal Code.

Sharjeel Iman is presently lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi since he has also been charged in the Delhi riots conspiracy case and the Jamia protest violence case.