- By Abhinav Gupta
- Tue, 28 Jan 2020 04:09 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Activist Sharjeel Imam, a former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, was on Tuesday arrested by Delhi Police from Bihar’s Jehanabad.
Imam was booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for his alleged "inflammatory" speeches, in which he threatened to "cut off" Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country, made during protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Imam, a PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies, was one of the initial organisers of Shaheen Bagh protests.
Also, a case of sedition was lodged against him on Saturday for a speech he delivered on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus on January 16. The Assam Police has also filed an FIR under the anti-terror law UAPA against Imam for his speech.
"We have arrested Sharjeel Imam from Jehanabad," said Rajesh Deo, deputy commissioner of police, Crime Branch.
By last evening, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police had been conducting raids in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi to arrest Imam. He had also been summoned by the JNU chief proctor.
Reacting to the development, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that nobody should do anything that is against the nation.
"Nobody should do anything that is not in the interest of the nation. The accusations and the arrest, court will decide on the matter," he said.
Earlier today, a brother of Imam was picked up by police in fresh attempts to trace the anti-CAA activist.
The police had raided Imam's ancestral home on Sunday night after "help was sought by central agencies".
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.
