Prosecutor absent 4-5 times in Sharjeel Imam speech case: HC

The Delhi high court on Monday said the prosecution had repeatedly sought adjournments on student activist Sharjeel Imam's plea seeking quashing of a supplementary chargesheet in an objectionable speech case.

Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri noted the prosecutor appearing in the case hadn't appeared on the last four to five occasions.

The case pertains to a purported speech given by Imam at Jamia Millia Islamia in December, 2019.

"For the last four-five occasions, he is not present," Justice Ohri remarked following which the proxy counsel for the state sought a last opportunity.

The court subsequently listed the hearing on February 28, 2025.

The high court had in June, 2023, issued a notice on the petition and granted time to the prosecution to file a status report.

The first supplementary chargesheet was filed in the case on April 16, 2020, following which Imam challenged the addition of sedition, the operation of which had been stayed by the Supreme Court, besides hate speech.

The lawyer had 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 in the present case.

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

The present FIR was based on the violence that took place at Jamia and Mata Mandir Marg on December 15, 2019, registered for offences under the Indian Penal Code, including rioting and attempt to commit culpable homicide, and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

The case was handed over to the Inter-State Cell, Crime Branch, and Imam was arrested on February 17, 2021, based on the alleged disclosure statement of a co-accused who claimed of being instigated to commit the offences after hearing the December 13, 2019, speech by Imam.

The first supplementary chargesheet added Sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between various groups) of the IPC against Imam.

Imam's plea argued there couldn't be multiple criminal proceedings on the same incident against a person and multiple prosecutions for the same alleged speech were unconstitutional.

On September 30, 2022, Imam was granted regular bail in the present FIR by a trial court but he continues to remain in jail due to other cases.

He faces prosecution in several cases connected to anti-CAA protests in December 2019 besides the terror case pertaining to the "larger conspiracy" behind the riots that broke out in the north-east area of the national capital in February 2020.

On May 11, 2022, the Supreme Court had stayed till further orders the registration of FIRs, probes, and coercive measures for the offence of sedition across the country by the Centre and the states until an appropriate forum of the government re-examines the colonial-era penal law.