Sharjeel Imam tests positive for COVID-19 in Guwahati jail

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Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) PhD student Sharjeel Imam, lodged in Guwahati Central Jail for inflammatory speech at an anti-CAA protest last year, tested positive for the novel coronavirus Tuesday. According to reports, his swab samples test report confirmed he was COVID-19 positive but asymptomatic. He has been shifted to an isolated ward of the jail. The ward has been turned into a COVID-19 hospital for the asymptomatic inmates.

After Imam tested positive, a Delhi Police team that arrived on July 17 to take him back to the national capital shelved its plan, for now.

Imam was arrested and brought to the state after his comments calling for Assam to be “cut off” from the rest of the country — which he had explained as a call for “chakka jam”. He is accused of conducting “inflammatory and instigating speeches” against the government on the CAA and National Register for Citizens (NRC) and was booked under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 153A and 505.