Sharjeel Imam, a research student at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Muslim activist who has been in jail for protesting against citizenship laws, will contest the Bihar Assembly elections as an independent candidate.
Imam, who is originally from Kako village in Jehanabad, Bihar, is considering contesting the polls from the Bahadurganj constituency in Kishanganj district, Scroll quoted his lawyer, Ahmad Ibrahim, as saying.
Currently, the seat is held by Mohammad Anzar Nayeemi, who captured it in 2020 representing the All India Majlis‑e‑Ittehadul Muslimeen; he has since aligned with the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Bihar is expected to hold its Assembly elections in October or November.
In January 2020, during the historic agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Imam was charged under draconian laws, including sedition and the UAPA, by five Indian states for his speeches against the CAA and NRC. Following an intense hate campaign on the Internet and repeated government notices, the PhD student from Bihar surrendered to the Delhi Police on 28 January 2020.
In his speeches, Imam had called for a road blockade as a method of protest against the CAA. The police in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh registered FIRs against him, and according to their chargesheets, his speech was labeled as secessionist and inflammatory.
The police alleged that his speeches had led to protests at Jamia Millia Islamia and contributed to tensions in the days leading up to the 2020 Northeast Delhi pogrom. The Delhi Police booked Imam in the Delhi pogrom conspiracy case as well as in the Jamia protest case.
His bail plea in the Delhi violence conspiracy case under UAPA has been pending for two years and nine months in the Delhi High Court. Over the past three years, there have been 70 hearings regarding his bail plea, with seven different benches hearing the case. Three judges have even recused themselves.
The 35-year-old Imam is believed to be the pioneer of the Shaheen Bagh protest, a historic 100-day-long peaceful sit-in in New Delhi organized in response to the passage of the CAA by the Indian Parliament in December 2019.
He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, a software engineer, and a prolific writer. At the time of his arrest, he was a PhD candidate at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Except for the case registered in Manipur, where he was not arrested, Imam has received bail (both regular and statutory) in six cases involving UAPA and sedition charges. However, he remains in jail in the Delhi violence conspiracy case, which is under UAPA.
Several United Nations rights experts called for the release of Imam and other anti-CAA protestors, saying that their arrests seem “clearly designed to send a chilling message…that criticism of government policies will not be tolerated.”
“I have already spent nearly four years in jail, and while I did anticipate being imprisoned on trumped-up charges due to my involvement in Shaheen Bagh, I had mentally prepared myself for it. As Ghalib wrote, “ḳhana-zad-e-zulf hain zanjir se bhagenge kyuun hain giraftar-e-wafa zindan se ghabaravenge kya” (“Why should the prisoner fear the chains of loyalty, when those bound by love run from them?”). What I did not expect, however, was to be accused of “terrorism,” especially for riots that occurred a month after my arrest. This speaks to the lengths the current regime will go to to suppress dissent and keep people like me behind bars,” Sharjeel Imam earlier wrote in an article which he sent to Maktoob from jail.
Hw went on to say: “The only real anguish I feel in this prolonged and unnecessary incarceration is the thought of my ageing and ailing mother. My father passed away nine years ago, and since then, it has just been me and my younger brother to support her. Apart from this, I submit to God’s will and spend my time reading as much as I can. As long as I have meaningful and interesting books, I find solace, and the world outside doesn’t affect me much.”
