New Delhi: JNU student Sharjeel Imam, who has been accused of making controversial statement “cut off Assam”, leading to sedition charges, was arrested on Tuesday from his home town Jahanabad in Bihar by Delhi Police after a four-day manhunt.
Imam, one of the initial organisers of Shaheen Bagh protests, was booked in a sedition case lodged across several states for his alleged inflammatory speeches made during a protest against CAA.
He has also been asked to appear before JNU’s Proctorial Committee by February 3 in connection with sedition cases lodged against him at various places.
A case against Imam under IPC sections 124 A (an offence by words, either spoken or written cause disaffection against Government established by law), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) was registered by the Delhi Police on January 26.
Apart from Delhi, the police of five states including Bihar, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Manipur booked Sharjeel under the relevant sections of the IPC.
On January 27, a team of central probe agency conducted raids at the ancestral home of Imam in Bihar’s Jehanabad when they picked up his younger brother. He was questioned at the Kako police station in Jehanabad, said reports. The police on Tuesday morning detained the brother of Imam.
The video of Imam’s speech was released by BJP on January 25 and in the video, he can be heard telling a small crowd that Muslims must get united and cut Assam from rest of India.
In a series of videos that went viral on social media, Imam can be heard saying, “If we all come together, then we can separate the Northeast from India. If we cannot do it for permanently, then at least for 1-2 months we can do this. It will take the administration at least one month to disperse all of them.” “It is our responsibility to cut Assam from India. When this will happen, only then the Centre will listen to us,” he further said in the videos.