New Delhi: Police team from Bihar and Delhi on Monday conducted multiple raids in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi to arrest research scholar Sharjeel Imam who has been booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for his alleged "inflammatory" speeches made during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, said the police.
Five teams of the Crime Branch have been deployed to locate Imam who is a resident of Bihar, they said.
Imam, a Ph.D student at Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies, has also been summoned by the JNU chief proctor. He has asked Imam to appear before the Proctorial Committee by February 3 and explain his position on the alleged provocative speeches.
Police in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have also lodged FIRs against Imam over his speech in which he threatened to "cut off" Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country. He had been booked in Assam and Uttar Pradesh earlier.
Jehanabad Superintendent of Police Manish Kumar said Bihar Police swooped in on Imam's ancestral house in Kako police station area on Sunday night after "help was sought by central agencies". While Imam was not found, two of his relatives and their driver were detained for interrogation and let off thereafter.
The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, which has registered a sedition case against Imam, has deployed five teams to locate him and conducted raids in the national capital, Mumbai and Patna. However, he could not be found.
The crime branch of Arunachal Pradesh police also filed a similar case against Imam on Sunday, Special Investigation Team (SIT) Superintendent of Police Navdeep Singh Brar said. The SIT has already begun investigating the case.
"This kind of provocation inciting secession of Assam and other NE states from rest of India, creating communal disharmony, hampering sovereignty and territorial integrity of India will not be tolerated," Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said in a tweet. If convicted, he could be imprisoned for life.
Imam has been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 124A (an offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against government established by law), 153A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief).
A case of sedition was also lodged against him on Saturday for a speech delivered on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus on January 16. The Assam Police has also filed an FIR under the anti-terror law UAPA against Imam for his speech.
(With inputs from PTI)
Comments
0 comment