A Delhi court Monday framed charges against JNU student Sharjeel Imam for allegedly making inflammatory speeches at Aligarh Muslim University and in Delhi’s Jamia area against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), based on an FIR filed on January 25, 2020.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat framed the charges under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) along with Section 13 (punishment for unlawful activities) of the UAPA.

The court also rejected Imam’s bail in this case, which was argued by his lawyer, Tanvir Ahmed Mir. The prosecution, during arguments, told the court that his speeches give a clear indication that Muslims have no hope and his alleged call to burn detention camps was not peaceful. Imam’s lawyers had submitted that without criticism, a society dies and becomes a heap of sheep.Mir argued that there was nothing in the impugned speech made by Imam that “directly or indirectly calls for violence”.

The 2020 FIR, filed at the Crime Branch police station, was in connection with speeches made in Delhi’s Jamia area on December 13, 2019. The Delhi Police Crime Branch has accused him of giving “inflammatory and instigatory speeches against the Government of India on the issue of CAA and NRC”.

“He, through his speeches, repeatedly incited the public to commit acts which would jeopardise public tranquillity, attempts to cause disaffection towards lawfully elected government of the country in the garb of democratically opposing the CAA. His oration and acts are seditious in nature,” states the chargesheet.