Delhi Police's Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested JNU student Sharjeel Imam, booked in a sedition case, from Jehanabad area in Bihar, officials here said.
The PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies has been booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for alleged 'inflammatory' speeches made during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
'We have arrested Sharjeel Imam from Jehanabad,' said Rajesh Deo, deputy commissioner of police, Crime Branch.
The force had deployed five teams to locate Imam, a resident of Bihar. Raids were conducted in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi.
Earlier in the day, a brother of Sharjeel Imam was picked up by police in a fresh attempt to trace the anti-CAA activist.
Police had raided his ancestral home also on Sunday as it went hunting for him but Imam eluded the dragnet.
He is likely to be produced before a Bihar court where police will seek his remand for questioning. It is not yet clear whether he will be questioned in Bihar or taken to the national capital.
A graduate in computer science from IIT-Mumbai, Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies at the JNU.
'Police must have acted according to law for wrongdoing. Protests are one thing, but nobody can talk about country's disintegration,' said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
During a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, Imam had reportedly said that when Assam and the Northeast would be “cut” from India, then only the government would listen to the protesters.
In a video that has gone viral, he can be heard saying: “We can cut the Northeast from India permanently; if not permanently, then for at least for one-two months. Only when Assam is cut from India they (government) will listen to us.” He added the Muslims and Bengalis in Assam were subjected to harassment because of CAA.
After the video gained traction on social media, Assam’s finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday morning said that the state government had already taken cognisance of the “seditious” statement and will register a case against him.
Subsequently, FIR against him was lodged with Assam Police. Later, police in Delhi, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh too registered an FIR against him.
