Assam, UP and Three other states slaps sedition case against sharjeel Imam

Meanwhile, Imam was not found at his residence, two of his relatives and their driver were taken into custody for interrogation and let off thereafter

New Delhi: On Sunday sedition charges were slapped against Sharjeel Imam, activist and Ph.D. student at JNU, by the Assam and Uttar Pradesh police and fresh charges under the same offenses, were issued against him in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Delhi

On January 16 the Assam and Uttar Pradesh police filed sedition cases against SharjeeI Imam for a speech that he had made against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Aligarh Muslim University. The Assam police have filed an FIR against Imam under the anti-terror law UAPA.

Uttar Pradesh and Delhi police have started searching in different areas of national capital to trace Imam. “We are working together with Delhi Police and should be able to find him soon,” said Aligarh SSP Akash Kulhary.

According to the sources, the Delhi police have also sent a team to Bihar to search for Imam at his village Kako. Imam’s three relatives were taken into custody for about four hours and released.

On Sunday night the police also carried out a raid at Imam’s ancestral house in Jehanabad after “help sought by central agencies” which are investigating the cases lodged against the JNU scholar, said Manish Kumar, the Superintendent of Police, Jehanabad.

Meanwhile, Imam was not found at his residence, two of his relatives and their driver were taken into custody for interrogation and let off thereafter. Imam’s late father Akbar Imam was a local JD(U) leader who had contested election but failed to win an assembly election in his lifetime.

Imam said while addressing speech the crowd that no political formation had ever stood with Muslims and believing that the constitution would emancipate Muslims was “a suicidal thought”, and that they must “use the anger productively”.

Imam added “If we have five lakh, people, with us, we can separate the Northeast from India. If not permanently, for one or two months. Put pile of brick and stones on tracks and streets…. 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 the rest of India) is dominated by Muslims.”

Assam minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had called Imam “the main organizer of the Shaheen Bagh protests” and alleged that the agitation at Shaheen Bagh had been caused by members of a community “who want to destroy the country and create another Pakistan out of India”.

Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu said that such a provocation would hamper the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country”.

Chief Minister of Manipur M.N. Biren Singh said that the Manipur police had filed an FIR against Imam under for threatening to “sever Northeast from the rest of country”.