Sharjeel Imam

Sharjeel Imam was born in 1988 at Kako village of Jehanabad district, Bihar. His father Akbar Imam was a politician; his mother Afshan Rahim is a homemaker, and his brother Muzzammil Imam is a social activist.[1] Akbar Imam was a Janata Dal (United) 's candidate in the Jehanabad constituency in the 2005 assembly election. In 2014, Akbar died of cancer after an illness lasting many years.[2]

Sharjeel Imam started school in 1994 and was considered a bibliophile by his teachers. He was schooled at a missionary school in Patna, and later, Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj. After completing high school in 2006, he studied computer engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. After graduation, he spent two years in Bangalore, where he joined a software company. In 2013, he joined Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Dehli to complete his master's degree in Modern History and started PhD in 2015 from the same university.[2][1]

Imam worked at the IT University of Copenhagen as a programmer for two months in 2009 and later worked as a teaching assistant at IIT Bombay. Thereafter, he worked as an engineer at Juniper Networks before returning to academics.[7][8] Imam wrote articles for TRT World,[9] Firstpost,[10] The Quint,[11] and The Wire.[12]

Imam was active in the anti-CAA protests and is believed to be the pioneer of the Shaheen Bagh sit-in protest.[13][14] The police said that Imam made two "very inflammatory and instigatory speeches in his opposition to CAA and NRC" on 13 December 2019 and 16 January 2020.[15] The latter speech was 40 minutes long;[2] in a three-minute long viral video of that speech, Imam could be heard calling for Assam to be permanently "cut off" from the rest of India[16] by blocking the Siliguri corridor also known as "Chicken's Neck",[15][2] which he claimed was a call for a "chakka jam" — a sit-in protest that involves roadblock and stopping vehicular movements, also deployed at the Shaheen Bagh protest site.[17]

Several rights activist and legal experts have suggested that the cases against Imam are fabricated. Aakar Patel, former head of Amnesty International India, stated that he does not find any part of Imam's speech seditious and that Imam "is in jail because he is a Muslim".[13] Citing the Brandenburg versus Ohio ruling, former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju came out in defence of Sharjeel, arguing for quashing of FIRs against him, saying that "he has not committed a crime", even though he disapproves of his speech.[18] Sharjeel's arrest was widely condemned by politicians, teachers, students, activists and other organizations.[19][20] The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union said that his arrest is a matter of "Islamophobia, selective amnesia & bias" of the state apparatus.[21] JNU Teachers' Association alleged that the sedition charge was invoked due to "other reasons" and that it reflects "politicisation" of the conduct of law enforcement agencies.[22] One hundred and forty-eight students and alumni of various IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and over a hundred students from Jamia Millia Islamia, AMU and other state universities signed a letter in his support.[23] A group of students hailing from Bihar and studying in prominent institutions, including Jawaharlal Nehru University and IIT Delhi, wrote an open letter to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav urging him to demand the release of Imam, highlighting Imam's contribution as an academician, student, historian and journalist.[24]

Over 50 activists were booked under sedition charges by Mumbai Police for raising slogans in support of Sharjeel Imam at a Pride Solidarity gathering in February 2020.[25]

• Sharma, Suparna (4 February 2020). "Shaheen Bagh: how the peaceful protest became a 'mudda' for bjp". Asian Age. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
• Aswani, Tarushi (16 July 2021). "Accused Of Sedition, Terrorism For A Speech, JNU Student Steadfast After 535 Days In Jail". Article 14. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021.