JNU research scholar and student activist Sharjeel Imam was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on Saturday in connection with a case filed against him for a speech he gave at the Aligarh Muslim University in January 2019, during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
However, Imam will continue to be in jail in connection with at least three cases under draconian UAPA and sedition.
In the speeches, Imam had called for a road blockade as a method of protests against CAA. The police in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh registered FIRs against the speech and according to their chargesheets, his speech was secessionist and inflammatory.
Iman is presently lodged in Tihar jail, since the student activist has also been charged in the Delhi riots conspiracy case and the Jamia protest violence case.
“One more step towards his release which shows that eventually truth prevails over lies, propaganda and witch-hunt,” said Muzzammil Imam, brother of jailed student leader.
Allahabad High Court granted bail to Imam in the case under sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity grounds of religion, race), 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. This case was filed against Iman in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh in January last year.
Imam already got bail in the Assam and Arunachal Pradesh UAPA cases.
Sharjeel Imam’s advocate Talib Mustafa, while arguing for his bail, said that sedition can be invoked only when there is an incitement or call to violence, which was not the case in Imam’s speech, Scroll.in reported.
“Rather, there were repeated calls to not indulge in violence and therefore 124A is not made out… Lastly, we also said that one-and-a half-years have gone [since] he has been in custody and he was not really needed for investigation,” said Mustafa.
