Delhi court rejects Sharjeel Imam's bail plea
New Delhi, Feb 17: A court here on Saturday dismissed the plea of student activist Sharjeel Imam seeking bail on the grounds that he had been in custody for the last four years, which was more than half of the maximum sentence prescribed for the offence.
The court directed to continue Imam's custody, saying the present case was "different" from other cases because of the nature of allegations against Imam and his "disruptive activities."
Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai was hearing Imam's plea seeking bail under 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), saying he was in custody since January 28, 2020, while the maximum sentence for the offence under Section 13 (punishment for unlawful activities) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is seven years, if convicted.
According to CrPC Section 436-A, a person can be released from custody if he has spent more than half of the maximum sentence prescribed for the offence.
The court, however, underlined that according to the provision, an accused's custody could be extended for a further period in "exceptional circumstances" after hearing the prosecution's case.
"Keeping in view the alleged acts of the applicant (Imam), the court is of the view that the facts in the case in hand are not normal and different than the facts which in any other case could be," the court said.
"Considering the allegations against the applicant and his disruptive activities, the court deems it appropriate not to consider the relief as prayed for and to continue his custody," it added.
Noting the allegations against Imam in the chargesheet, the court said he delivered various speeches in Delhi, Aligarh, Asansol and Chakband, which incited people and ultimately triggered the communal riots in different parts of Delhi.
It said, "The contents of the speeches clearly show that the applicant incited the public to do chakka jams and block the cities. Particularly, in the speech dated January 16, 2020, as delivered at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the applicant said that if a particular number of people are organised, the North-East part of the country can be permanently or temporarily cut,"
Imam also created a WhatsApp group, 'Muslim students of JNU', to raise voice against Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, besides drafting and distributing pamphlets to instigate the members of a particular community against CAA/NRC, the court said.
The court said although Imam did not ask anybody to pick the weapons and kill the people, his speeches and activities mobilised the public which disrupted the city and might have been the main reason for the outbreak of riots.
"Further, through inflammatory speeches and social media, the applicant skillfully manipulated the real facts and incited the public to create havoc in the city. Further, the words used by the applicant in his different speeches were so powerful that they captured the minds of the people of a particular community and incited them to take part in disruptive activities which finally resulted in the riots," it said.
In 2022, the trial court had framed charges against Imam under Sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of IPC and Section 13 (Punishment for Unlawful Activities) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Noting the facts of the case, the court observed, "Although the court cannot take into consideration section 124A IPC but if the acts and actions of the applicant are considered, they can be termed as seditious in a normal dictionary meaning ."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
