New Delhi: Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, who was recently arrested by the Assam police and later got bail, on Monday blamed PMO for 'hatching a conspiracy' to defame him.
“The conspiracy was designed by the PMO to defame a Dalit leader like me,” Mevani said at an AICC briefing. The Congress in Gujarat will hit the streets over the issue and organize a state bandh on June 1, said Mevani, a Dalit leader. The Congress-backed MLA, who was arrested over a tweet on PM Modi, justified his post saying he only requested the PM, who was visiting the state, to appeal for communal peace given riots in some parts of Gujarat.
“What is wrong in urging the PM to appeal for peace,” said Mevani. On the manner in which he was arrested at midnight, the Gujarat MLA further said that neither he nor his lawyers were shown a copy of the FIR nor the Speaker of Gujarat Assembly informed about the arrest. “They did not even allow me to contact my lawyer. My phone and laptop were seized. Even the mobile phones of my staff were seized,” he said, adding that the same “may now be infested with a spying software Pegasus.”
Mevani accused that Assam was becoming a police state and that his arrest had hurt the sentiment of the Gujaratis. The Gujarat lawmaker cited the observations of his bail order to point out how the court had pulled up the Assam police for filing a second FIR which was not maintainable. “The Assam police should improve itself,” he said, “They used a woman police officer to file a second FIR against me. But why was she made to sie besides me in the same car when there were five police vehicles escorting me,”
“I can understand that the woman must be under stress. I can file a defamation case against her but I won’t,” he said, “all this is not good for democracy.” The Gujarat MLA further pointed out that it was worth noting that minutes after registering an FIR against him, the Kokrajhar police left for Vadgam in Gujarat. “It shows that the flight tickets must have been booked in advance,” he said.
The Vadgam MLA demanded that cases against minorities in his constituency be dropped and recovery of large amounts of drugs at the Mundhra port over the past months must be probed. “The drugs are spoiling our youth. Usually anyone carrying a small quantity of drugs is arrested but here large quantities of drugs have been recovered at this port. I think this should worry all of us and people concerned must be questioned ,” Mevani said.
Also read:It was conspiracy planned at PMO: Jignesh Mevani on his arrest
