Sharjeel Imam

Sharjeel Imam (born 1988) is a student activist in India. He participated in the Citizenship Amendment Act protests, against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). He was later arrested by the Delhi Police under sedition laws for alleged "inflammatory" speeches which allegedly incited the 2020 Delhi riots. His incarceration has drawn condemnation from international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights, and Amnesty International. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) lists him in its victims database as being detained for his "religious freedom advocacy." According to USCIRF, Sharjeel Imam was arrested in January 2020 for taking part in "peaceful protests opposing the religious discriminatory Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) in December 2019 and January 2020."

Early life and education Sharjeel Imam was born in 1988 at Kako village of Jehanabad district, Bihar. His father Akbar Imam was a politician; his mother is a homemaker, and his brother is a social activist.

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 (IIT Bombay). After graduation, he spent two years in Bangalore, where he joined a software company. In 2013, he joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi to complete his master's degree in Modern History and started PhD in 2015 from the same university. Imam wrote articles for TRT World, Firstpost, The Quint, and The Wire.

Political activism Imam was active in the anti-CAA protests and is believed to be the pioneer of the Shaheen Bagh sit-in protest. 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. The latter speech was 40 minutes long; by blocking the Siliguri Corridor also known as "Chicken's Neck",

Several human 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.

Sharjeel's arrest was widely condemned by politicians, teachers, students, activists and other organizations. The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union said that his arrest is a matter of "Islamophobia, selective amnesia & bias" of the state apparatus. 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. One hundred and forty-eight students and alumni of various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and over a hundred students from Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and other state universities signed a letter in his support. A group of students hailing from Bihar and studying in prominent institutions, including Jawaharlal Nehru University and IIT Delhi, wrote an open letter to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav urging him to demand the release of Imam, highlighting Imam's contribution as an academic, student, historian and journalist.

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.

Cases filed by different states Five Indian states have filed various cases against Imam includes Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi.

Prison On 28 January 2020, Sharjeel Imam surrendered to Delhi Police in his native village of Kako. He was on Facebook Live before surrendering, for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). He was also booked under UAPA. After his arrest, he was taken to Assam and was held in Guwahati Central Jail. Whilst in prison, he was infected with COVID-19 and tested positive for it on 21 July 2020.

In April 2022, a district court in Delhi denied bail to Imam in a case alleging a "larger conspiracy" into the 2020 Delhi riots, involving charges under UAPA and IPC, stating that the allegations were "prima facie true". In September 2020, Imam was granted bail in a case alleging that he delivered a seditious speech near Jamia Millia Islamia in 2019.

In May 2024, Imam was granted bail in the case pertaining to his speeches made during the protests against Citizenship Amendment Act by the Delhi High Court. However, he remains in jail in alleged connection with the larger conspiracy case involving Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) charges related to the 2020 Delhi riot.

On 5 January 2026, the Supreme Court of India's two-judge bench rejected the bail plea of Imam along with Umar Khalid, while granting conditional bail to five other co-accused. The judges drew a distinction between the latter's alleged role and those ascribed to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. They held that the allegations against the five co-accused were "limited" and "ancillary" in nature, whereas Khalid and Imam faced allegations of a “larger conspiracy” behind the riots in New Delhi. They cited the gravity of the allegations and the "central and formative role" role attributed to them by the prosecution.