Sharjeel

Sedition case: 5-day police custody for JNU student Sharjeel Imam

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday sent JNU studentImam, arrested in a sedition case, to five-day custody under Delhi Police Crime Branch.Imam was produced at the residence of chief metropolitan magistrate Purushottam Pathak in the evening amidst high security, said advocate Mishika Singh, appearing for the JNU research scholar in the matter.He was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch from Bihar's Jehanabad on Tuesday for making allegedly inflammatory speeches at the Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University Earlier in the day, Imam was brought to Delhi from Patna on a transit remand after he spent Tuesday night in a police lock-up there.The situation in the Patiala house courts complex was tense after the Delhi Police informed that Imam would be produced before the magistrate there.Some lawyers raised slogans against Imam, held up posters calling him a "traitor" and demanded that he be hanged.The PhD scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University 's Centre for Historical Studies has been booked for sedition and under other charges in several states after purported videos of his alleged inflammatory speeches made during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act were circulated on social media.An FIR was registered against him by Delhi Police on January 25 under IPC sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (promoting or attempting to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever) among others.