This story is from January 27, 2020

Raids in Patna and Jehanabad to nab Sharjeel Imam

Raids were conducted at more than half a dozen locations in Patna and Jehanabad in the last 48 hours to nab Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam after an arrest warrant was issued against him by Aligarh police in a sedition case.
Raids in Patna and Jehanabad to nab Sharjeel Imam
Sharjeel Imam
PATNA: Raids were conducted at more than half a dozen locations in Patna and Jehanabad in the last 48 hours to nab Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam after an arrest warrant was issued against him by Aligarh police in a sedition case.
A joint team of Delhi, UP and Bihar police first conducted raids on the ancestral house of Sharjeel at Kako in Jehanabad late on Saturday night.
Thereafter, the multi- state police team conducted raids at Muslim- dominated Sabzibagh, Phulwarishariff and Patna City areas on Sunday night but Sharjeel couldn’t be arrested. Incidentally, Shaheen Bagh- like 24x7 dharnas, have been going on at Patna City and Phulwarisharif.
Imam, one of the organisers of the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protest at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, had allegedly made "seditious" statements in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) by calling for cutting off Assam from the rest of India.
Jehanabad SP Maneesh told TOI on Sunday that raids were carried out in search of Imam at Kako Bazar but they could not arrest him. Apart from UP, cases have also been filed against Imam in Assam and Delhi for his January 16 provocative speeches at AMU, a video of which later went viral on social media.
In the video, he is heard giving a clarion call to Muslims to cut off Assam from India at Chicken's Neck. Chicken's Neck, or the Siliguri corridor, is a narrow stretch of land of about 22km, located in West Bengal, that connects northeastern states to the rest of India. This corridor is inhabited largely by Muslims.
Jehanabad SP Maneesh admitted that some family members of Imam were quizzed by the members of the visiting police teams. Sleuths of intelligence agencies also interrogated Imam's close relatives. A few of them have been detained as well.

"We are cooperating with the police teams from outside the state in their investigation. There is no case pending against Imam here," the SP told TOI over phone on Sunday.
Authoritative sources some relatives of Imam are living in Patna as well. "Few family members of Sharjeel stay in Patna. We can't share more information related to the ongoing investigation as it's a sensitive issue. Senior officials are monitoring the police operation," a police officer posted at the police headquarters said.
Sharjeel has stated on his official Facebook profile that he is from Patna and done schooling from St. Xavier’s High School here as well as DPS- Vasant Kunj in New Delhi. Later he got admitted to IIT, Bombay from where he did post-graduation in computer science. He also worked as IT programmer at the University of Copenhagen before coming to JNU, where he is a student in Centre for Historical Studies.
Nevertheless, family members of Sharjeel, including his mother have defended him, claiming that his statement has been exaggerated. “I initially tried to stop Sharjeel for he insisted that we have to fight against CAA and NRC. Thus, it is true that he is against NRC and CAA but his statement is being shown by blowing it out of proportion. Now, everyone is after him,” Sharjeel’s mother told a news channel at Jehanabad on Monday.
Sharjeel’s uncle Arshad Imam also claimed that Sharjeel is innocent and he is being used for political mileage in Delhi elections. “It is true that Sharjeel started the dharna at Shaheen Bagh and said that we should protest NRC, CAA and NPR. Every Indian has the right to express his opinion and he did the same through the dharna…His entire speech of 40 minutes has been cut to 40 seconds to create a wrong impression about him, possibly for political reasons in Delhi elections,” Arshad said.
Meanwhile, another video of Sharjeel has surfaced, in which he is heard asking people in a sit- in dharna in Bara village of Chakand police station area of Gaya district on January 23, to come out of villages and block national highways. Sharjeel said that it was for Bihar Muslims to fight for their Assamese brethren and for this dharnas alone would not do.
“Assam is burning and we can not see Assam burning idly. We have to do something. Let us paralyse the country and only then the government will listen…There are two crore Muslims in Bihar and one crore non-Muslims may join them. Three crores people can do anything. Once you occupy Bihar Roads, Nitish Kumar’s police can not remove you and if Nitish’s police removes you, Nitish himslef will be removed,” he is heard saying in the video, the authenticity of which TOI could not verify.
“…The first thing we did was to unite people to put forth our demands. This steps was important because Muslim people stopped coming out on the streets. Last time, we were seen in 1985 but we have not come out on streets thereafter, especially not in such large numbers. The second step will be to use the anger of Muslims by forcefully stopping vehicular movement by sitting on the streets and not getting up till this law (CAA) is not taken back,” Sharjeel said.
He goes on to say that Muslim protestors should not get up from the streets “till the detention camps in Assam are closed.” “Tell me what you will do if detention camps will be opened in Bihar and women from your houses will be put in those camps. You will have to burn those detention camps.”
(Inputs by Abdul Qadir in Gaya)
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