TISS student booked for slogans supporting Sharjeel Imam approaches Bombay HC for pre-arrest bail in sedition case

Mumbai: A 22-year-old student on Friday approached Bombay High Court seeking pre-arrest bail in a sedition case lodged against them (their preferred pronoun) for allegedly shouting a slogan in support of jailed JNU student Sharjeel Imam at a LGBTQ event. Chudawala, who identifies themselves as ‘Kris’, approached the high court on Friday after a sessions court rejected their anticipatory bail plea on 5 February. [caption id=“attachment_4841151” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Chudawala’s lawyer, Vijay Hiremath, mentioned the plea before Justice SK Shinde who posted it for hearing on 11 February. The student was not granted interim protection from arrest by the sessions court to enable them to approach the high court. Chudawala is a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences in the city. According to police, during a rally of the LGBTQ community at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai last week, Chudawala shouted the slogan “Sharjeel tere sapno ko hum manzil tak pahuchaenge” (Sharjeel, we will realise your dreams). Imam, a PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Historical Studies, was arrested on 28 January from Bihar after he was booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for alleged “inflammatory” speeches made during protests against Citizenship Amendment Act. According to Chudawala’s plea, the slogan was taken out of context to allege that she wanted to create hatred against a community. The plea added that a particular section of society may not agree with the slogan but that does not amount to sedition. Mumbai’s Azad Maidan police registered a case against Chudawala and 50 others (unidentified persons) on 3 February after a video showing Chudawala raising slogans in support of Imam went viral after the LGBTQ rally on 1 February.