Imam, who is also an accused under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the conspiracy case related to the 2020 North-East Delhi riots case, will remain in custody.
Clarion India
NEW DELHI — A Delhi Court on Saturday discharged all the 11 student leaders including former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam and Asif Iqbal Tanha in a case related to the incidents of violence at Jamia Milia Islamia University in December, 2019 during CAA protests.
The court said in the order, as the Delhi Police was unable to apprehend the actual perpetrators, it booked the accused as “scapegoats”.
Additional Sessions Judge of Saket court, Arul Verma passed the order a copy of which is in possession of Clarion India.
“Marshalling the facts as brought forth from a perusal of the chargesheet and three supplementary chargesheets, this court cannot but arrive at the conclusion that the police were unable to apprehend the actual perpetrators behind the commission of the offence, but surely managed to rope the persons herein as scapegoats,” Judge Arul Varma said.
The student leaders who are discharged include Safoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam, Aasif Iqbal Tanha, Chanda Yadav, Mohd Abuzar, Umair Ahmad, Mohd Shoaib, Mahmood Anwar, Mohd Qasim, Bilal Nadeem and Shahzar Raza Khan.
However, Imam, who is also an accused under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the conspiracy case related to the 2020 North-East Delhi riots case, will remain in custody. Both Imam and Asif Iqbal Tanha were charged under multiple Sections of the Indian Penal Code related to rioting and unlawful assembly.
The Jamia case FIR involved offences of rioting and unlawful assembly under sec. 143, 147, 148, 149, 186, 353, 332, 333, 308, 427, 435, 323, 341, 120B and 34 of IPC.
Dozens of student leaders and Muslim activists were arrested under draconian charges following the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Many of them are still in jail.
