Sharjeel Imam, who has been in jail for more than three years, has been granted bail by the Delhi High Court today. Sharjeel Imam had challenged the trial court’s decision of not granting him bail on February 17 in the High Court. Imam was accused of sedition for making inflammatory remarks in the speeches given at Jamia Millia Islamia and AMU, and now he has got relief in this case. A bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Manoj Jain accepted Imam’s bail plea. Sharjeel Imam had sought bail on the basis of having served half of the maximum sentence of seven years. Advocates Talib Mustafa and Ahmed Ibrahim appeared on behalf of Sharjeel Imam.
Imam was booked under FIR 22/2020 registered by the Special Branch of Delhi Police. Though initially the case was registered for the offence of sedition, Section 13 of the UAPA was later invoked. He has been in custody in this case since January 28, 2020. Now, the court has granted him bail in this case.
Sharjeel Imam’s lawyer said that there is another case related to Delhi riots against him, which is to be heard in July. Mustafa said, ‘It was a long battle, now we hope that he will get bail in this last case as well, we are working very positively.’
Earlier, the trial court had dismissed the case, when the trial court had said, ‘Although the applicant did not ask anyone to take up arms and kill people, his speeches and activities organised people, which caused unrest in the city and this could be the main reason for the outbreak of riots.’
According to Live Law, in June last year, Sharjeel Imam had approached the Delhi High Court challenging the proceedings against him in two separate cases for the same speech delivered at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in December 2019.
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