Sharjeel Imam's police custody extended by three days

A court here on Monday extended the police custody of sedition-accused Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam by three days.

Imam, whose five day police custody ended on Monday, was produced at Patiala House Court's Chief Judicial Magistrate Purushottam Pathak's residence amidst high security.

The Delhi Police sought his custody for three additional days to probe his alleged links to a WhatsApp group, Crime Branch sources said, and the court accepted the demand.

Imam was nabbed from Kako in Bihar's Jehanabad district on January 28 for allegedly making seditious and inflammatory speeches against the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). Following this, he was sent to police custody for five days.

The Crime Branch had registered a sedition case against him on January 26 for delivering a provocative speech on January 13 after its video went viral. Subsequently, he went into hiding and the police launched a manhunt to nab him.

Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh also followed the suit and filed cases against him.

In a purported video, Imam was seen talking about splitting the northeast from India to block the implementation of the NRC.

"We know how Muslims are being treated in Assam. We have to save people from the NRC. The only way to do this is by cutting off northeast from India," he had allegedly said.IANS