Sharjeel Imam has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 28 January 2020 in connection with sedition and Delhi riots cases.
Delhi’s Karkardooma court has granted seven days’ interim bail to Delhi riots accused Sharjeel Imam to attend his cousin’s wedding. The court has granted him relief from 4 October to 10 October.
Sharjeel Imam has been in jail since January 2020. He is accused of conspiring to engineer the communal riots that broke out in Delhi in February 2020 under the cover of sit-ins and protests held in 2019 against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Imam was also granted interim bail in March this year. At the time, a Delhi court granted him 10 days’ interim bail to attend his brother’s wedding and look after his ailing mother.
Before this, he had been granted 10 days’ parole from 20 March to 30 March to attend his younger brother’s wedding.
Bail plea had been rejected in July
Earlier, in July, the Karkardooma court had rejected the imam’s bail plea. While rejecting the bail, the court had said that, in view of an earlier order by the Supreme Court, it could neither consider bail pleas nor grant any relief.
In fact, the Supreme Court was of the view that the petitioner could file a fresh bail plea only after the testimonies of the protected witnesses relied upon by the prosecution had been completed or one year had passed from the date of the order. The Supreme Court had issued this order on 5 January 2026.
53 people were killed in the Delhi riots
Sharjeel Imam was arrested by the Delhi Police from Kako village in Bihar’s Jehanabad district on 28 January 2020. At the time, cases were registered against him under several sections, including sedition (Section 124A of the IPC). Later, a separate case was also registered against him under the UAPA in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots.
More than 750 cases were registered in connection with the violence in north-east Delhi. Around 53 people were killed and several others were injured in the violence. More than 250 chargesheets have been filed so far in cases related to the riots. A total of 1,153 people have been named as accused in these cases.
