Source – indiatoday.in
Former JNU student and one of the key organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest, Sharjeel Imam, who landed in a major controversy over a controversial remark, has been arrested from Bihar’s Jehanabad.
Sedition cases were lodged against Sharjeel Imam in five states across the country. Now, Delhi Police has arrested Sharjeel Imam from Bihar after he was on the run for 4-5 days since his speech video went viral.
Sharjeel Imam was arrested from Tako area in Jehanabad after several police teams conducted raids across Jehanabad and other areas of Bihar. He will now be flown down to New Delhi for further questioning.
In the controversial remark, Sharjeel Imam had suggested Assam be cut off from mainland India.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sharjeel Imam’s brother was also picked up by the police over the anti-CAA protesters alleged inflammatory speeches at the AMU protest.
Asked about Sharjeel Imam’s arrest from Bihar, CM Nitish Kumar said, “Nobody should do anything that is not in the interest of the nation. The accusations and the arrest, court will decide on the matter.”
Sharjeel Imam had been involved in organizing the protests at Shaheen Bagh but came into limelight after a video clip went viral wherein he could be heard making some controversial comments while addressing a gathering at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), following which he was booked under sedition charges.
Delhi Police claimed he had given an “inflammatory” speech earlier on the Jamia Milia Islamia campus and lodged an FIR against him in the national capital.
Another case was lodged under the stringent anti-terror law against him in Assam, taking cognisance of Imams remark that Assam could be “severed from India, even if for a few months” as a result of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Police in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh had also lodged FIRs against the JNU scholar, over his speech in which he threatened to “cut off” Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country.
His mother had appeared before the media and claimed that her son was “not a law-breaker and would surrender to the investigating agencies” and that he had been in favour of “calling off” the agitation at Shaheen Bagh, which has been in news for 24X7 protest, mostly by women.