Trouble For Shaheen Bagh ‘Mastermind’ Sharjeel Imam; Delhi, Aligarh Police File FIRs

On Saturday, a clip had gone viral of Imam threatening to cutoff Assam from the rest of India. The Assam government had yesterday already filed a case of sedition against Sharjeel, a former JNU and IIT-Bombay student.

New Delhi: A day after a clip went viral of former JNU student Sharjeel Imam, described by media as the ‘mastermind’ behind the ongoing Shaheen Bagh protest, threatening to cutoff Assam from the rest of India, the authorities on Sunday got into action with the Delhi Police and the Uttar Pradesh Police both filing FIRs against him.

The Assam government had yesterday already filed a case of sedition against Imam, who is also an IIT-Bombay alumnus.

While the Delhi Police registered an FIR under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Aligarh Police, which too filed an FIR, said that it had sent two teams to Bihar to arrest Imam, a resident of Patna.

Delhi Police: Crime Branch of the Delhi Police have registered an FIR under section 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code against former JNU student Sharjeel Imam (file pic). pic.twitter.com/oEHAFJI5ph

— ANI (@ANI) January 26, 2020

SSP Aligarh Akash Kulhari also announced to the media that are working in coordination with Delhi and Bihar Police to arrest Sharjeel.

SSP Aligarh Akash Kulhari: Two teams have been sent to arrest Sharjeel Imam (former JNU student & organiser of anti-CAA protest at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh). We are working in coordination with Delhi Police and Bihar Police. pic.twitter.com/wy1XnOAQUa

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 26, 2020

Separately, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, too, announced that the Itanagar Crime Branch has registered a sedition case against Imam. There have also been reports of the Bihar Police raiding his residence and arresting two of his relatives.

The video of the speech, which he gave on January 16 at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) shows him speaking against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). “If five lakh Muslims get together, we can cut off Assam from the rest of India easily for two-three months, if not permanently. We can easily overtake the Chicken’s Neck, which is a Muslim-dominated area, thus preventing the Indian Army from reaching Assam,” he is heard saying in the clip.

The Chicken’s Neck, officially called the Siliguri Corridor, is a narrow, 22-km stretch of land in West Bengal, which connects the northeast with mainland India.

Meanwhile, the agitators at Shaheen Bagh, in a statement, distanced themselves from his remark, saying that one individual doesn’t represent all the protesters. Notably, according to reports, Imam’s ‘faction’ had, on January 2, called off its participation in the protest, even as the rest of the protesters continued.