DELHI HC GRANTS BAIL TO SHARJEEL IMAM IN THE 2020 RIOTS CASE  

Photo credit : the new indian express

After a long period of four years, the Delhi High Court has granted bail to Sharjeel Imam, who was detained in connection with the riots case of 2020. Throughout his arrest, Imam has been confronted with allegations of “sedition” and “unlawful activities.” He was booked for the case charged by the Delhi police’s special branch for sedation and section 13 UAPA was also added later.

Imam went to question the trial court who refused to give him bail even after his period of sentence. The maximum period of sentence on the grounds of section 13 was 7 years if convicted. According to the section 436 A CrPC a person can be released from custody after the half of the maximum sentence given to the person in custody.

On February 17, the trial court, in its decision to deny bail to the accused, after the extension of the accused’s custody could be warranted under “exceptional circumstances” subsequent to the prosecution’s case being heard. As per the prosecution’s assertions, it is alleged that Imam delivered speeches at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 13, 2019, and at the Aligarh Muslim University on December 16, 2019, wherein he  threatened to separate Assam and the rest of the North East from the nation.

His speeches were mainly delivered to spread  hate and dissatisfaction of the central government in power.Nevertheless, Special Public Prosecutor Rajat Nair, appearing on behalf of the Police, argued that Imam had not completed half of his sentence and cited Section 436A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to oppose the grant of bail. He pointed that the delay in the trial was due to imam’s plea for the trail stay in 2022 

Delhi high court’s response to imams bail

Following the hearing, the bench comprising Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain said, “Appeal is allowed”. According to a PTI report , Sharjeel Imam’s lawyer responded to the bail stating “ After he completed 3.5 years, that is half of the sentence, we invoked Section 436 A and sought statutory bail. When someone has completed more than half of the sentence, then he ought to get bail. Today, (Delhi) High Court was pleased to grant bail to Sharjeel Imam,” said advocate Ahmad Ibrahim, Sharjeel’s lawyer.

Photo credit : the indian express 

Sharjeel Imam in 2020

Sharjeel Imam was a 31 year old former student in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi. He was one among the organizers of the Shaheen bagh protests against the CAA. In one of his many speeches he delivered he allegedly allied people to cut off Assam from India . FIRs were filed  in different parts of the country but he easily got bailed from these cases. 

Later Imam went to be the mastermind of Delhi riots after the announcement of citizenship amendment bill in the parliament. In December 2020 , Iman made whatsapp groups of muslim students and also gave pamphlets in mosques. These pamphlets were made to generate hate among the muslim community due to the Ram Janmabhoomi case and also misinterpretations regarding the citizenship amendment bill passed by the parliament.

After the bail was announced many leftist activities are celebrating the bail stating it was a major relief. But its also important to look into the fact that Imam has only got relief in one of his grounds. As stated by  OpIndia Editor-in-Chief Nupur J Sharma in twitter that “  Sharjeel Imam has been granted bail in FIR 22/20, NOT 59/20 which is the larger conspiracy case.”