Jehanabad: Anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam, who was on the run after sedition charges were slapped against him for allegedly making inflammatory statements, was arrested Tuesday from this district of Bihar, the state’s police chief Gupteshwar Pandey said.
The JNU scholar was wanted by police of several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi.
“Sharjeel Imam has been arrested from his native Kako village in Jehanabad,” Bihar’s DGP Gupteshwar Pandey said.
Earlier in the day, a brother of Sharjeel Imam was picked up by police in a fresh attempt to trace the anti-CAA activist.
Police had raided his ancestral home also Sunday as they went hunting for him but Imam eluded the dragnet. He is likely to be produced before a Bihar court where police will seek his remand for questioning. It is not clear whether he will be questioned in Bihar or taken to the national capital.
Imam, a graduate in computer science from IIT-Mumbai, had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies at the JNU.
Imam was slapped with a sedition case after a video of his purported speech went viral on social media where he was heard speaking about ‘cutting off’ Assam and the northeast from the rest of India.
“If five lakh people are organised, we can cut off the northeast and India permanently. If not, at least for a month or half a month. Throw as much ‘mawad’ (variously described as pus or rubbish) on rail tracks and roads that it takes the Air Force one month to clear it,” he had said in the video which has been circulating on the social media.
“Cutting off Assam (from India) is our responsibility, only then they (the government) will listen to us. We know the condition of Muslims in Assam… they are being put into detention camps,” Imam added.
Meanwhile, reacting to Imam’s arrest, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said people have the right to protest but nobody can talk about the country’s disintegration.
Kumar told reporters that police must have acted in accordance with law in arresting Imam and now the courts will take appropriate action.
PTI