A Delhi court on Saturday said that Sharjeel Imam violated his interim bail condition in the Delhi riots conspiracy case by interacting with the media.
However, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma courts said he was not cancelling Imam's bail since he has to surrender by today evening.
The Court had granted Imam bail for seven days from October 4 to October 10 to attend the wedding functions of his cousin brothers.
One of the conditions imposed in the interim bail order was that Imam must not come in contact with the media or use social media.
Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Madhukar Pandey appeared for the prosecution and argued that Imam violated this condition.
He relied on videos uploaded on YouTube and social media platform X to argue that Imam was present in a room when his brother gave an interview to news agency ANI.
Pandey also referred to the ANI videos in which Sharjeel Imam was sitting in his living room, talking to people present in the room. Pandey said that such a video could not have been shot without Imam’s knowledge.
Advocate Talib Mustafa appeared for Imam and contended that he had neither interacted with any journalist nor given an interview.
He stated that the video uploaded by News 24 was a compilation of separate clips and that the interview was given by Imam's brother, who was not bound by the bail conditions.
After watching the videos, the court rejected the defence's contention that Imam was not present when the interview was recorded.
The court noted that the clips showed Imam and several other people in the same room where his brother was being interviewed. It further observed that the relevant portions of the video bore ANI's identification, indicating that they were recorded by the same media organisation.
“Thus, it is clear that not only the first part of the video, in which the brother of the accused was giving interview to the media person, but the second part and the third part also were shot by the same media person of ANI News. Apparently these facts and circumstances show that the media person of the ANI News was there in the same room where the accused was also sitting. Thus, apparently the accused has flouted the term ii of the bail order dated 22.09.2026, whereby he was granted interim bail,” the Court said.
However, it said that since Imam has to surrender today, it will not be appropriate to cancel his interim bail.
Imam has been in jail since January 2020 after he was booked in a number of cases related to the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). He was granted bail in other matters, but is incarcerated in the Delhi riots conspiracy case. The Delhi Police has invoked Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in this case.
He was denied regular bail in the case by the Delhi High Court on September 2, 2025 and that decision was upheld by the Supreme Court on January 5, 2026.