A Delhi court on Saturday refused to grant statutory bail to student activist Sharjeel Imam, who was arrested in January 2020 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizenship (NRC).
The order was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma court.
Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020 on sedition charge for allegedly delivering provocative speeches in Delhi’s Jamia area and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during the anti-CAA protests.
The trial court had rejected his first bail application in this case in July 2022.
The activist contended in his petition that he had already spent four years in jail out of the maximum sentence of seven years and was, therefore, eligible for statutory bail.
He said the offence of sedition has been kept in abeyance by the Supreme Court and the UAPA provisions invoked against him did not carry more than seven years sentence.
The Counsel representing the Delhi Police contended that the punishment for the offences invoked against Imam should be considered cumulatively not concurrently.
The Delhi High Court will hear on March 8, a petition filed by Imam challenging the order framing sedition and UAPA charges against him in the case.
Earlier on January 30, the Delhi High Court had ordered the trial court to decide and pronounce its judgement on the statutory bail petition of Imam by February 17.
Imam was booked under FIR 22 of 2020 registered by Delhi Police’s Special Branch. Initially, the case was lodged for the offence of sedition, Section 13 of UAPA was invoked later.
On Tuesday, a division bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Manoj Jain disposed of Imam’s plea seeking statutory bail in the case by mentioning that his application is already pending adjudication before the trial court.
Consecutively, the bench ordered the trial court to decide on the application within 10 days from the next date of hearing on February 07. The bench added that in case Imam is denied bail, then he has the right to file a fresh appeal on the ground mentioned in his appeal along with any other grounds.
Meanwhile, Imam’s lawyer informed the court that the next date of hearing before trial court is February 12, the latest order sheet of trial court shows it to be February 07. Advocate Talib Mustafa appeared for Sharjeel Imam and SPP Ashish Dutta appeared for the State.
Sharjheel Imam had moved the application before the trial court in August last year. The application was reserved by ASJ Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma Courts in September 2023. Nonetheless, the judge was transferred later and another judge presided over who is dealing with the application now.
The application notes that Imam is ready to furnish reliable surety to the satisfaction of the court and also to abide by the conditions or restrictions imposed on him, in case of his release.
In June 2023, Imam had approached the Delhi High Court challenging proceedings against him in two different cases for the same speech delivered at Jamia Millia Islamia University in December 2019. The matter is pending adjudication.