Sharjeel Imam/File Image
The Delhi Police Crime Branch on Monday conducted raids at multiple locations in Mumbai, Patna, and Delhi to arrest Sharjeel Imam, the co-ordinator of Shaheen Bagh protests. Five teams of Crime Branch were deployed to locate Imam. Sharjeel Imam, a PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies, has been summoned by the JNU chief proctor. Imam has been asked to appear before the Proctorial Committee by February 3 and explain his position on the alleged provocative speeches. Sharjeel Imam has been in news for his controversial "cut off Assam from India" speech that he allegedly made a few days ago at the Shaheen Bagh protest site.
Sharjeel Imam's ancestral home in Bihar was raided by the police. Imam has sedition cases lodged against him across several states. FIRs have also been lodged against him in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
Earlier, Sharjeel Imam was booked on similar charges by the Aligarh Police for a speech on the AMU campus. The cases were lodged after Imam's video emerged where he spoke about cutting off the northeast from India if "five lakh people stand organised".
"If five lakh people are organised, we can cut off the northeast and India permanently. If not, at least for a month or half a month. Throw as much 'mawad' (variously described as pus or rubbish) on rail tracks and roads that it takes the Air Force one month to clear it.
"Cutting off Assam (from India) is our responsibility, only then they (the government) will listen to us. We know the condition of Muslims in Assam....they are being put into detention camps," he was shown in the video as saying.
Assam police has already lodged a case against him under the anti-terror law--the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act.
Imam's father, the late Akbar Imam, was a local JD(U) leader who had unsuccessfully contested an assembly election in his lifetime.
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