By Fayisa C A
He was arrested by the authorities on January 28, 2020 after being accused of inciting communal violence through speeches made by him in December 2019 and January 2020 at peaceful protests opposing the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA).
Sharjeel Imam, the Muslim student leader, spent well over four years in prison before he could even get a bail. It was on May 29, 2024 that the Delhi High Court granted him bail in the case but additional charges against him prevented him from being released from prison.
Imam was accused of orchestrating the February 2020 Northeast Delhi riots which claimed at least 53 lives, mostly Muslims who were part of the anti-CAA protests.
Soon after his arrest, Sharjeel Imam was slapped with the draconian, The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA.
Ironically, Sharjeel Imam, along with other students, human rights activists and politicians was arrested one month before violence rocked northeast Delhi. The Guardian had called the Delhi riots as the “worst religious conflict to engulf the capital in decades,” but hastened to note that “questions have persisted about the role that the Delhi police played in enabling the violence, which was predominately Hindu mobs attacking Muslims…”
The catalyst for the riots, according to The Guardian, is widely acknowledged to have been a comment by Kapil Mishra, a BJP leader, who on February 23 issued a public ultimatum declaring that if the police did not clear the streets of a protest against the new citizenship law seen as anti-Muslim, his supporters would be “forced to hit the streets”.
This story was originally published in newindianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
