Sharjeel Imam, who is lodged in Guwahati jail for anti-Assam remark, tests COVID-19 positive

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) PhD student Sharjeel Imam, who has been lodged in Guwahati Central Jail, Assam for an alleged inflammatory speech at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest in 2019, tested positive for the COVID-19 on July 21^st, 2020.

A total of 435 inmates of the Guwahati Central Jail have been tested positive for the lethal virus so far, Dasarath Das, Assam’s Inspector General (IG) of Prisons, informed.

It may be mentioned that Imam was arrested and brought to the state after his comments calling for Assam to be “cut off” from the rest of the country — which he had explained as a call for “chakka jam”. He was initially an active volunteer at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

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He is accused of conducting “inflammatory and instigating speeches” against the government on the CAA and National Register for Citizens (NRC) and was booked under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 153A and 505.

Earlier, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader Akhil Gogoi and his associates Bitu Sonowal and Dhairjya Konwar, who were lodged in the jail, were tested positive for COVID-19. They were arrested for their role in the anti-CAA movement in the state last year.  Former Bodo insurgent leader Ranjan Daimary too tested positive in the same jail.

COVID-19 outbreak in the jail raised many questions on the part of the government regarding the management. Oppositions and a few organisations slammed the government over the outbreak in the jail.

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