Arguing for bail in the larger conspiracy case of the Northeast Delhi riots Thursday, student leader and activist Sharjeel Imam said he has been implicated in the case based on witness statements recorded while he was already in custody. He also submitted that he had no “connection” with any of the alleged co-conspirators and his public speeches repeatedly called for non-violence.
Imam and other accused, who have been in custody now for over four years, are facing allegations of pre-planned conspiracy to allegedly cause riots in northeast Delhi between February 23-25, 2020 with offences lodged under the IPC, Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act, Arms Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA). An FIR was registered by the Delhi Crime Branch in March 2020 with the investigation being undertaken by the special cell.
Advocate Talib Mustafa, on behalf of Imam, submitted before the bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur that the first overt act the student leader is accused of is a speech he delivered on December 13 at Jamia Millia
Islamia University where he proposed the idea of a chakkajam (road blockade) but “that it has to be non-violent”.
Highlighting that Imam had delivered four speeches — at Delhi, Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Gaya in Bihar — Mustafa submitted that “altogether five FIRs for the same speech were registered in various states… First FIR was in Assam, then Manipur, then Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and in Delhi… I’m on bail in all these 5 FIRs.”
Highlighting that at no point Imam exhorted for violence, and instead only emphasised on peaceful methods of protesting against the CAA/NRC law, Mustafa added, “According to the prosecution, Umar Khalid is my mentor…on January 2, 2020, I distanced myself from the Shaheen Bagh protest site and requested all to withdraw from the protests through a Facebook post… Witness statements were recorded while I was in custody, on the basis of which I’m implicated (in the larger conspiracy case)… There is absolutely no chat and calls between me and any of the other co-conspirators or co-accused in the case… He is a student with absolutely no run-ins with law before this.”
“There is absolutely nothing in any of the chats that would indicate that at any point of time, I tried to incite violence… none of my speeches can show that I intended to incite violence… no specific reference that I called for violence, there is clear utterance against violence… I am the only one with no connection with anybody at all,” Mustafa submitted while reading out parts from the speeches made.
Imam also argued on grounds of delay and adopted the arguments canvassed by the other accused in the case.
The High Court has heard bail arguments of accused student activist Umar Khalid, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima — the only woman in the case to continue in jail till date, Abdul Khalid Saifi of United Against Hate, Athar Khan, Shifa Ur Rehman and Mohd Saleem Khan.
The bench listed the bail plea of another accused, Shadab Ahmed, for hearing on January 14 after it was submitted that he will also be arguing on the merits of the case, apart from arguing on grounds of delay in trial and parity with other accused who are already out on bail. Meanwhile, for bail pleas of the other eight accused, the division bench is now due to hear arguments from the prosecution on December 20 when it has posted the matters next for consideration.
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