Police raids going on in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi to arrest JNU research scholar Sharjeel Imam

Raids are

being conducted 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, police said on Monday.

Five teams

of the Crime Branch have been deployed to locate Imam, a resident of Bihar,

they said.

Imam, a PhD

student at the 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.

A case

against Imam, who was one of the initial organisers of Shaheen Bagh protests,

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 505

(statements conducing to public mischief) was registered by the Delhi Police on

Sunday.

Also, a case

of sedition was lodged against him on Saturday for a speech he 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.