NEW DELHI: The Delhi police have arrested a young Muslim scholar for his alleged role in the monthslong violent demonstration against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, 2020, which critics claim targets India’s largest minority.
The special cell of Delhi police incarcerated Sharjeel Imam, a Ph.D. scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on Tuesday under the country’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). He was brought back to Delhi from the northeastern state of Assam on Sunday on a production warrant.
In the charge sheet filed in April, Imam was charged with sedition before a court in Delhi for allegedly inciting people to indulge in “activities detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of the country”. The charge sheet had alleged that he openly defied the country’s constitution and called it a “fascist” document.
Before he was brought back to Delhi, Imam was lodged in an Assam prison for an alleged inflammatory speech at an anti-CAA protest last year. He tested Covid-19 positive on July 21.
On July 25, Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet against him in connection with a case related to his allegedly inflammatory speeches. The 600-page charge sheet — which accused Imam of sedition, promoting communal enmity among other charges — was filed in Delhi’s Patiala House court.
India accused Imam of delivering seditious speeches and inciting the Muslim community to indulge in unlawful activities including blockage of the highways leading to the major cities thereby disrupting normal life.