Guwahati. The District Sessions Court in Assam’s Barpeta on Friday granted bail to independent Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani. He was first arrested by the Assam Police on April 20 in Gujarat in connection with an ‘objectionable’ tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mevani was re-arrested by the Barpeta police on April 25 on various charges, including ‘outraging the modesty of a woman police officer’, soon after she was granted bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Kokrajhar district.
Mevani’s lawyer Angshuman Bora said on Friday that his bail application has been accepted by the Barpeta district sessions court on a personal bond of Rs 1,000.
“We are yet to get the detailed court order. We don’t know when Mevani will come out of police custody,” Bora told -AnyTV News.
The 41-year-old MLA, who was elected from Vadgam assembly constituency, was first arrested by the Assam Police on April 20 (from Gujarat) and taken to Kokrajhar district the next day.
Mevani, (who is also the convener of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch) was on April 26 convicted by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Barpeta for “voluntarily causing hurt”, “criminal force to prevent public servant from discharge of duty” and “on a woman police officer”. He was sent to five-day police custody on the charge of ‘intending to outrage his modesty by force’.
Meanwhile, the Congress has organized several demonstrations across Assam since last week against the “undemocratic arrest” of Mevani, who had earlier promised outside support to the party.
The Gujarat MLA was arrested on April 20 after a complaint was filed against him by a BJP leader from Assam for taking action against Mevani under the IT Act.
Mevani had earlier alleged that his arrest was a deep conspiracy by the BJP and the RSS.
“They (BJP and RSS) are doing this systematically and maligning my image. They did it with Rohit Vemula, they did it with Chandrashekhar Azad, now they are targeting me,” he told the media.
—AnyTV News
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