Sharjeel Imam moves Delhi High Court challenging rejection of bail in Delhi riots conspiracy case

JNU student Sharjeel Imam has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the special court’s order denying him bail in the Delhi riots case relating to conspiracy. .Imam’s appeal will be heard on Friday by a Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar..In his petition, Imam has challenged the order dated April 11, 2022 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Karkardoom Courts, who dismissed his plea holding that he was part of the conspiracy to cause riots.“The Ld. Special Court has failed to appreciate that the entire investigation is faulty and the charge sheet attributes events to the speeches of the Appellant to incidents of violence that are not connected in any direct or indirect way to the Appellant even as per the materials relied upon in the chargesheet,” the appeal said.The petition, filed through advocates Ahmad Ibrahim, Talib Mustafa and Kartik Venu, argued that Imam was arrested by the investigating agency as part of a targeted campaign to have multiple FIRs and investigations against him at the same time.“The Ld. Special Court has further failed to appreciate that there was absolutely no admissible evidence whatsoever to come to a prima facie satisfaction that the Appellant was part of any agreement among the co-accused persons to turn the peaceful sitting protests/ chakka jams into communal riots. Rather, it is the admitted case of the prosecution that the Appellant was already in judicial custody for about a month prior to the date of the unfortunate riots which broke out in North East Delhi,” the plea said. .The Delhi High Court is already seized of another bail application and an appeal by Imam. While he is seeking bail in the case pertaining to his allegedly provocative speeches in relation to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019, and a speech given at the Aligarh Muslim University in January 2020, the appeal is against framing of UAPA and sedition charges.