Sharjeel Imam to contest Bihar polls

Activist Sharjeel Imam will contest the Bihar Assembly elections as an independent candidate, his lawyer Ahmad Ibrahim told Scroll.

Imam is considering contesting the polls from the Bahadurganj constituency in Kishanganj district.

The seat is currently held by Mohammad Anzar Nayeemi, who had won the election in 2020 on an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen ticket. Nayeemi has since joined the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Bihar is expected to head for the Assembly polls in October or November.

Imam has been in jail for more than five years.

He was arrested in January 2020 in connection with the speeches he made in Delhi in December 2019 and in Aligarh, Asansol and Chakband in January 2020 during protests against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens.

According to the police chargesheet against him, Imam’s speeches had incited members of the Muslim community which had, in turn, triggered riots.

Clashes had broken out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence left 53 dead and hundreds injured.

The Delhi Police has claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was plotted by those who organised the protests against the contentious citizenship law.

Imam has been charged under the Unlawful...

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