SC refuses to stay prosecution of Sharjeel Imam

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the prosecution of JNU student Sharjeel Imam in multiple FIRs lodged at various places for his controversial speech of cutting the chicken neck corridor of the country during the anti-CAA-NPR-NRC protest.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and V Ramasubramanian told senior advocate Sidharth Dave, appearing for Imam that the court can't pass interim orders as the plea before the court for clubbing of cases.

Dave said there was an urgency in the case as prosecution may start in different courts, as the top court was set to go on summer vacations from next week. The court, meanwhile, gave two more weeks to Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh governments to file their response to the writ petition filed by Imam. The Delhi and the Uttar Pradesh governments have already filed their reply to the petition.

The court fixed the matter for consideration after three weeks.

Sharjeel Imam was arrested from his native place at Bihar's Jehanabad district on January 28 after his speech on cutting India's chicken's neck, connecting India to North East, had gone viral. Delhi police filed its chargesheet against him this month invoking charges of sedition among others.

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.