Delhi High Court directs Delhi Police to reply to bail plea by Sharjeel Imam in sedition, UAPA case

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to Delhi Police on a plea filed by activist Sharjeel Imam seeking bail in a sedition and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case filed against him for allegedly making inflammatory speeches in Delhi's Jamia area and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)..A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain has given the Delhi Police two weeks to respond to Imam's plea. The matter will be heard next month. .Imam has approached the High Court against the trial court order denying him bail in the case. The case relates to the speeches made by Imam at AMU and Jamia area while protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC).He was arrested in the case on January 28, 2020.It was Imam's argument that he had already spent four years in jail out of the maximum sentence of seven years and is, therefore, eligible for statutory bail.He said that the offence of sedition has been kept in abeyance by the Supreme Court of India and the UAPA provisions invoked against him do not carry more than seven years sentence..In an order passed on February 17, the trial court had denied bail to Imam holding that even though speeches and other activities by Imam against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) did not contain any exhortation to people to pick up weapons or kill people but they did mobilise the public which might be the main reason in outbreak of the Delhi riots. Imam's speeches were so powerful that it captured the imagination of the people belonging to particular community and incited them to take part in disruptive activities which finally resulted in the riots, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma court said in his order..Sharjeel Imam did not ask anyone to pick up weapons but his speeches captured people's imagination, incited them: Delhi Court.After the speeches of Imam and due to his activities, a number of protesters and protest sites in Delhi increased and the crowd started blocking the main roads which consequently put the whole city on a standstill, the Court said."Finally, just after the speeches and the alleged activities of the applicant, on different dates and places, the riots occurred causing violence, huge damage to the public property and death of a large number of people," the judge stated.