Barpeta (Assam): A local court in Assam's Barpeta granted bail to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani on Friday, on the case filed against him under IPC sections 294/323/353/354. Earlier, Mevani was denied bail and was remanded to five days of police custody in connection with the case of assault on a policewoman. After hearing the plea, the court had reserved its order on Thursday. Anghsuman Bora, the lawyer of Jignesh Mevani, told the media that the Session Judge of Barpeta reserved his order on the bail plea and the court will pass it on Friday.
On Monday, after Mevani was granted bail in the case involving tweets about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, police re-arrested for assaulting a policewoman. An FIR on the former issue was filed against him after a complaint was filed by an Assam BJP leader, Arup Kumar Dey. The case against Mevani was lodged under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), section 153(A) (promoting enmity between two communities), 295(A), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and sections of the IT Act. Tweeting about his arrest, Indian politician and economist belonging to CPI(M) called his arrest "travesty of justice".
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What a traversity of justice! An elected Gujarat dalit legislator, Mevaani, arrested from his home state by Assam police, on flimsy charges of a political tweet still languishes in jail for the second week with connivance of judiciary. Donot foget,it can happen to any one of us.
— Thomas Isaac (@drthomasisaac) April 29, 2022 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">What a traversity of justice! An elected Gujarat dalit legislator, Mevaani, arrested from his home state by Assam police, on flimsy charges of a political tweet still languishes in jail for the second week with connivance of judiciary. Donot foget,it can happen to any one of us.
— Thomas Isaac (@drthomasisaac) April 29, 2022What a traversity of justice! An elected Gujarat dalit legislator, Mevaani, arrested from his home state by Assam police, on flimsy charges of a political tweet still languishes in jail for the second week with connivance of judiciary. Donot foget,it can happen to any one of us.
— Thomas Isaac (@drthomasisaac) April 29, 2022
A couple of tweets on Mevani's Twitter handle are not visible on his feed with a message displaying that the tweets have been withheld in India based on a "legal demand". Mevani claimed that he was arrested out of a political vendetta against him. The Assam state Congress unit had protested the arrest of the Gujarat legislator. Elected as an independent MLA, Mevani extended his support to Congress in September 2019.
Read: Assam court rejects Jignesh Mevani's bail plea, sends him to 5-Day police remand