Delhi High Court grants bail to Sharjeel Imam in Sedition, UAPA case

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted statutory bail to activist Sharjeel Imam in a sedition and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case filed against him for allegedly making inflammatory speeches in Delhi's Jamia area and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)..A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain passed the order after taking into account the fact that he has already served half of the sentence for the offences invoked against him. Imam will, however, continue to remain in jail since he is also an accused in the larger conspiracy case in relation to the Delhi riots of 2020..Imam approached the High Court against the trial court order denying him bail in the sedition case.The case relates to the speeches made by Imam at AMU and Jamia area while protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC).He was arrested in the case on January 28, 2020..It was Imam's argument that he had already spent four years in jail out of the maximum sentence of seven years and is, therefore, eligible for statutory bail.He said that the offence of sedition has been kept in abeyance by the Supreme Court of India and the UAPA provisions invoked against him do not carry more than seven years sentence..In an order passed on February 17, the trial court had denied bail to Imam holding that even though speeches and other activities by Imam against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) did not contain any exhortation to people to pick up weapons or kill people but they did mobilise the public which might be the main reason in outbreak of the Delhi riots.Imam's speeches were so powerful that it captured the imagination of the people belonging to particular community and incited them to take part in disruptive activities which finally resulted in the riots, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma court said in his order.After the speeches of Imam and due to his activities, a number of protesters and protest sites in Delhi increased and the crowd started blocking the main roads which consequently put the whole city on a standstill, the Court said."Finally, just after the speeches and the alleged activities of the applicant, on different dates and places, the riots occurred causing violence, huge damage to the public property and death of a large number of people," the judge stated.