Patna: The RJD and Congress have urged the Centre as well as the state government to initiate strict action against activist and JNU student Sharjeel Imam for giving provocative speeches against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC.
Talking to reporters Congress leader Rajesh Rathod said that, “all those who are provoking people through their inflammatory speeches including Sharjeel Imam should be severely punished. We will not allow anyone to take even an inch of our country’s land”.
The RJD also reacted in a similar way and said that “the police should trace his whereabouts and arrest him immediately for giving inflammatory speeches”.
Leaders from both the parties gave the statement after a joint team from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar conducted raids on the ancestral house of Sharjeel Imam at Kako in Jehanabad district late Saturday night.
While Sharjeel was not found at his house, few of his relatives were detained for questioning and released later. His relative’s house was also raided in Patna’s Sabzibagh locality on Monday.
Sources said that “the police had received information that he has been living in Patna but during the raid, they couldn’t trace him here. A separate police team from Delhi and UP is also presently camping in Jehanabad area”. Sharjeel Imam, a post-graduate in computer science from IIT Mumbai is currently doing research in Modern India history at JNU.
Reports suggest that a sedition case was slapped against him after his alleged speech went viral recently. In the video, he is seen urging protesters to “cut off Assam from India’s chicken neck”.
“He was concerned about CAA and NRC and I don’t think he gave the speech to provoke people. Our family believes in the constitution and has full faith in the law of the land. His speeches have been twisted for political gains”, Sharjeel Imam’s uncle told reporters in Jehanabad.
Police in two northeastern states — Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh — also lodged FIRs against Imam.
He had been booked in Assam and Uttar Pradesh earlier.
The Arunachal Pradesh Police has registered a case against Sharjeel Imam for his alleged inflammatory speeches, a senior police officer said here on Monday.
A case against Imam under IPC sections 124 A (an offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against Government established by law), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 153 B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) has been registered on Sunday, Special Investigation Team (SIT) SP Dr Navdeep Singh Brar said.
Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu has slammed Imam for his “Break India” remark. “This kind of provocation inciting secession of Assam & other NE states from rest of India, creating communal disharmony, hampering sovereignty will not be tolerated,” Khandu tweeted.
