Sharjeel Imam to be produced in Guwahati court on Feb 20

GUWAHATI: Sharjeel Imam, allegedly a key organiser of the Shaheen Bagh protest against Citizenship Amendment Act in New Delhi, will be produced before the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court, Kamrup Metro here on Thursday, police said.

An Assam Police team, which had left for Tihar Jail earlier, is bringing Sharjeel to the city by train and expected to arrive here by Thursday afternoon. The Assam police team was camping in Delhi to co-ordinate in the case with Delhi police.

The police are likely to ask for Sharjeel’s custody for 14 days in order to carry out interrogation in the sedition case registered against him.

Sharjeel, who was finally arrested by Delhi Police from Jehanabad in Bihar on January 28, is alleged to have made a seditious statement (recorded in an audio clip) saying that “Assam needs to be cut off from rest of India”.

The Assam government subsequently registered a case against him after taking cognizance of the seditious statement and verifying the authenticity of the audio clip.

Guwahati commissioner of police, Munna Prasad Gupta told a section of the media that the police will on Thursday ask the court for 14 days’ custody after due formalities for interrogation.

Reportedly, police of six states, Bihar, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi booked Sharjeel under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for his alleged statement. He has been slapped with charges of sedition and inciting enmity between communities under Sections 124A, 153A and 505 of the (IPC).