A Delhi court on Tuesday sent Sharjeel Imam, named as an “instigator” by the Delhi Police in its chargesheet for violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at New Friends’ Colony here last year, to judicial custody till March 3.
It stated that it had attached CCTV footage, call detail records and statements of over 100 witnesses as evidence in the chargesheet. Imam was arrested on sedition charges last month in a separate case.
Earlier on Monday, the court had sent Imam to one-day custody of the Delhi Police in the case as it wanted to quiz him because an accused — Furkan — in the December 15, 2019 violence case has alleged in his disclosure that he was provoked by Imam’s speeches.
The police had earlier told the court that Furkan was arrested on the basis of a CCTV footage which showed him carrying a container allegedly containing petrol. Four people were arrested in the case on December 16 and sent to judicial custody. Furkan was arrested later.
Imam, who came into the limelight during the ongoing protests at Shaheen Bagh against the CAA and the NRC, was arrested from Bihar’s Jehanabad on January 28 in a separate case for allegedly making inflammatory speeches at Jamia Millia Islamia here and in Aligarh.
A case was registered against him on sedition and other charges on January 26.
Protestors had torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with police in New Friends’ Colony near Jamia during the demonstration against the CAA on December 15, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and fire fighters injured.
The police used batons and teargas shells to disperse the violent mob. They entered Jamia campus, saying rioters had taken shelter there. However, Jamia students had denied that they were involved in the violence and had alleged police brutality.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal had said groups of people, who were coming from the Jamia side, gathered near New Friends’ Colony and blocked the road. The protesters, around 1,500, did not pay heed to the police appeals to clear the area.
The protest was being held against the contentious law which seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslims religious minorities from three neighbouring countries who arrived in India to escape religious persecution before 2015.
