Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 30: In a sedition case filed against him for his allegedly provocative remarks against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens, a Delhi court on Friday granted JNU student Sharjeel Imam bail.
Imam will however continue to be detained because he is a key defendant in the conspiracy case involving the Delhi riots.
For his comments in 2019, the New Friends Colony Police Station filed a sedition FIR against Imam on the grounds that they allegedly incited violence in Jamia Nagar in Delhi.
He was prosecuted with several offences under the Indian Penal Code after the police claimed that his statements sparked unrest in the neighbourhood (IPC).
The Court later noted that Imam was only found guilty of two of these offences. They were Sections 124A (Sedition) and 153A offences (Promoting enmity between groups). In both of these cases, bail has now been granted to Imam.
Further Sessions Judge Anuj Agrawal granted Imam statutory bail after observing that the Supreme Court had suspended the section of the law that made sedition a crime and that Imam had already served more than half of the prison time required for the offence under Section 153A.
The Delhi High Court is now hearing bail requests in the conspiracy to commit the Delhi riots case.
