New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday on the bail application of JNU student leader Sharjeel Imam, arrested for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during the 2019 demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), in Delhi. The police has been asked to answer. A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta has issued a notice to the Crime Branch of Delhi Police seeking its reply in 10 days. The court has fixed March 24 for the next hearing.

According to the prosecution, Sharjeel Imam allegedly delivered speeches at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 13, 2019 and Aligarh Muslim University on December 16, 2019. In these speeches, he had threatened to cut off the contact of Assam and the rest of the North East with India. Imam had challenged the January 24 order of a lower court denying bail in the case in the high court. During the hearing, the court expressed a prima facie opinion that the court did not consider the considerations for granting or denying bail.

The court asked that he (the lower court judge) did not see anything. All these offenses carry punishment of less than seven years. We are asking the police why they should not be released on bail? Can he run away? Can he tamper with the evidence? Who are the witnesses? On this, the prosecutor said that Sharjeel Imam is also facing charges under Section 124A (punishment for sedition) of the IPC, which provides for punishment up to life imprisonment. The court said that in sedition, there should be talk of incitement to violence. He said that the police will have to explain to the court why Imam should not be granted bail.

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