Delhi Police charges Sharjeel Imam with instigating violence at anti-CAA stir in Delhi's New Friend's colony; court sends him to judicial custody till 3 March

New Delhi: A Delhi court Tuesday sent Sharjeel Imam, named as an “instigator” by Delhi Police in its charge sheet on violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at New Friends Colony here last year, to judicial custody till 3 March. Imam was arrested on sedition charges last month in a separate case. The police have filed the charge sheet before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur, naming Imam as an instigator of the violence. It said it has attached CCTV footage, call detail records and statements of over 100 witnesses as evidence in the charge sheet. The court had on Monday sent Imam to one-day custody of Delhi Police in the case as it wanted to quiz him because an accused, Furkan, on 15 December 2019 violence case has alleged in his disclosure statement that he was provoked by Imam’s speeches. The police had earlier told the court that Furkan was arrested on the basis of a CCTV footage which showed him carrying a container allegedly containing petrol. Four people were arrested in the case on 16 December and sent to judicial custody. Furkan was arrested later. Imam, who came into the limelight during the ongoing protests at Shaheen Bagh here against the CAA and the National Register of Citizens, was arrested from Bihar’s Jehanabad on 28 January in a separate case for allegedly making inflammatory speeches at the Jamia Millia Islamia University here and in Aligarh. A case had been registered against him on sedition and other charges on 26 January. Protestors had torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with police in New Friends’ Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia during the demonstration against the CAA on 15 December, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and firefighters injured. The police used batons and teargas shells to disperse the violent mob. They entered the Jamia university campus, saying that rioters had taken shelter there. However, the Jamia students had denied that they were involved in the violence and had alleged police brutality. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal had said groups of people, who were coming from the Jamia side, gathered near New Friends’ Colony and blocked the road. The protesters, around 1,500, did not pay heed to the police appeals to clear the area. The protest was being held against the contentious law which seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslims religious minorities from three neighbouring countries who arrived in India to escape religious persecution before 2015.