Sharjeel Imam withdraws plea seeking interim bail to contest Bihar elections

Jawaharlal Nehru University scholar Sharjeel Imam on Tuesday withdrew his plea before Karkardooma court seeking interim bail to contest the upcoming Bihar legislative assembly elections.

Advocate Ahmad Ibrahim appeared for Imam and said that his regular bail plea is pending before the Supreme Court and the proper forum for the interim bail application should have been the apex court.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sameer Bajpai asked Ibrahim to file an application to the effect and said the request would be allowed.

Imam filed the plea seeking interim bail from October 15 to October 29 to contest elections from the Bahadurgan seat as an independent candidate.

In his plea, Imam said that he is a "political prisoner and a student activist".

"He [Imam] is willing to contest elections from his home state Bihar which is scheduled to take place from in 2 phases from 10.10.2025 to 16.11.2025," it was submitted.

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. His appeal against that order is pending before the Supreme Court.

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