Delhi Court Denies Bail To Sharjeel Imam, 'Did Not Ask To Pick Weapons But Speeches...': Court
A Delhi court on Saturday denied the bail plea of Sharjeel Imam in a sedition and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case for allegedly making inflammatory speeches in December 2019. However, the court while denying the bail said that the speeches and the activities of the Imam against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) did not contain any advice to people to take weapons or attack people. But the Imam’s speech and activities mobilized the public, disrupting the national capital and hence could be a reason for the outbreak of the Delhi riot that occurred in February 2020, the court claimed. In 2022, a trial court had rejected Imam’s first bail plea in the case.
The court further noted that the Imam’s speeches were powerful enough to capture the imagination of the people belonging to a particular community, inciting them to engage in activities which led to the riot, according to the Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma court.
“Although the applicant did not ask anybody to pick the weapons and kill the people his speeches and activities mobilised the public which disrupted the city and might have been the main reason for the outbreak of the riots. Further, through inflammatory speeches and social media, the applicant skillfully manipulated the real facts and incited the public in order to create havoc in the city. Further, the words as used by the applicant in his different speeches were so powerful that they captured the mind of the people of a particular community and incited them to take part in the disruptive activities which finally resulted into the riots,” the court ordered.
The court further observed that after the Imam’s speech, the number of protest sites in Delhi increased and the people started blocking the roads, bringing the city into stagnation.
The court stated that it was after the speeches and the alleged activities of the Imam that the riot happened, causing violence, damage to public properties and the death of many people.
Sharjeel Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020, for the speech he delivered at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia University against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Out of a total of seven years, Sharjeel Imam already spent four years in prison, making him eligible for statutory bail. However, the court while rejecting the bail stated, “Although the court cannot take into consideration section 124A IPC but if the acts and actions of the applicant are considered, in a normal dictionary meaning they can be termed as seditious.”
