Addition of sedition in rioting case: HC seeks police stand on Sharjeel Imam’s plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the stand of the city police on a petition by student activist Sharjeel Imam seeking quashing of a supplementary charge sheet introducing the offence of sedition and hate speech in a criminal case concerning his alleged objectionable speech delivered at Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019.

Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar issued notice on the petition and granted time to the prosecution to file a status report. First supplementary charge sheet was filed in the case on April 16, 2020. Counsel for the petitioner said the challenge to the supplementary charge sheet was to extent of addition of the offences of sedition, whose operation has been stayed by the Supreme Court, and hate speech.

The lawyer said a separate FIR for same offences has already been registered by the Delhi Police in relation to two of his speeches during the anti-CAA protests including the speech in question here.

The petition has also payed for a direction to the trial court to proceed with the trial in the matter in respect to all the other offences invoked in the case.