Delhi Court grants bail to Sharjeel Imam in sedition case after 31 months of custody

New Delhi: A Delhi Court on Friday granted bail to Sharjeel Imam in a sedition case lodged against him for allegedly making an inflammatory speech at Jamia during an anti-CAA-NRC protest in 2019. He was in custody for the last 31 months.

This case was registered at the police station in New Friends Colony, Delhi in 2019.

It is important to note that as the proceedings in the offense of Sedition are in abeyance. He has been granted bail in section 153 (Promoting enmity between the two groups of people) IPC. In this section, the maximum punishment is 3 years.

Additional Sessions Judge Anuj Agrawal granted Statutory (Default) bail to Sharjeel Imam in view of his undergone period in custody in section 153 A. He has undergone more than half of the period of the sentence.

The court granted relief to the JNU student on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 30,000 and a surety in the like amount including other conditions.

The accused moved an application through advocates Talib Mustafa and Ahmad Ibrahim seeking Statutory bail under section 436 A Crpc was moved on behalf of the accused as he has undergone more than half of the sentence in custody.

Section 436 A Cr.PC states that where a person has, during the period of investigation, inquiry or trial under the CrPC of an offence under any law (not being an offence for which the punishment of death has been specified as one of the punishments under that law) undergone detention for a period extending up to one half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for that offence under that law, shall be released by the court on his personal bond with or without surety.

His earlier bail application was dismissed by the trial court on 22 October 2021, in view of sections related to Sedition and promoting enmity between groups. He moved the High court against the order.

Meanwhile, the Supreme passed an order on 17 May 2022, directing the government to keep in abeyance all the cases related to the offence of Sedition.

Thereafter he had again moved to trial court seeking bail in light of the direction of the supreme court. The trial court had directed the petitioner to seek clarification from the High Court on the provisions of section 436 A Crpc applied in this case.

Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .