Delhi Police have booked Sharjeel Imam, one of the organisers of the anti-citizenship act protests in the city’s Shaheen Bagh, for his alleged remarks threatening to “cut-off” Assam from the rest of India, news agency ANI reported on Sunday.
The police in Assam have already registered a first information report (FIR) under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Imam in Guwahati.
According to Asian News International, the crime branch of Delhi Police has registered an FIR under section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
A video featuring Imam had gone viral on social media on Saturday.
“If we have 500,000 organised people then we can permanently cut the northeast from India or at least for one month… It is our responsibility to isolate Assam from India, then only they will listen to us,” Imam is heard saying in the video.
HT could not independently check the veracity of the video clip.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday hit out at each other over the video clip.
As the BJP targeted the ruling party in Delhi on its stand over the protest, the AAP questioned why the government has not taken any action in the matter.
The protesters of Shaheen Bagh disassociated themselves from Imam’s comments and said the speech was not given in Shaheen Bagh.
“It warrants repetition that neither the contentious statement in question not the speech were ever delivered at or around Shaheen Bagh,” they said in a statement read.
“We disassociate ourselves from any such narratives and establish yet again that there is no organizing committee at Shaheen Bagh, no leader, nor any one particular organizer,” they said.
At least 500 protesters, mostly women, have been protesting in Shaheen Bagh against the citizenship act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the last 40 days. They have said they will call off the agitation only when the amended act is withdrawn.
Prasanta Patnaik