The Meghalayan Bureau
GUWAHATI:
Amidst protest from the Congress workers, Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mevani was produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Kokrajhar and was remanded to three-day police custody, on the evening of April 21.
Prior to that the Dalit leader, who had recently joined the Congress, was arrested from Palanpur town in Gujarat over “objectionable” tweets on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which have now been withheld by the microblogging site Twitter.
Mevani was charged with Kokrajhar police station under Sections 120 (B), 153 (A), 295 (A). 504, 505(A), (B), (C), (2) of IPC read with section 66 of Information Technology Act.
Mevani, the MLA from Gujarat’s Vadgam constituency, was arrested based on a complaint lodged in Kokrajhar police station by Anup Kumar Dey, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a resident of Bhavanipur village in Kokrajhar district.
In his complaint lodged with the Kokrajhar Police Station, Anup Kumar Dey had said, “I have come across a tweet on April 18, of one Jignesh Mevani who happens to be an MLA of Vadgam Assembly Constituency, Gujarat, circulated by using one of the most widely used social media platforms ‘Twitter’ wherein the Twitter user mentioned that the Prime Minister of India worships and consider Godse as God… The circulation of the tweet published in the Twitter has caused widespread criticism and has the propensity to disturb public tranquillity, prejudicial to maintenance of harmony among a certain section of people…,” Dey complaint read.
Responding to the arrest, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that he was not aware of Mevani’s identity. “I don’t know. Who is he?” Sarma said.
Addressing a press meet at his residence, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhupen Kumar Borah said that he can sniff a conspiracy behind the arrest and informed that legal experts have been asked to aid the apprehended Dalit leader.
Criticising the police action, Borah said, “Police did not give details of the FIR based on which the arrested was made. Mevani has always been vocal against the BJP and the RSS.”
Borah also alleged that instead of curbing rising cases of crimes in the state and protecting the people, the police force is more focused on dealing with a “simple tweet”.
Threatening to launch a protest against the government, if Mevani isn’t released on bail, APCC chief spokesperson Manjit Mahanta said, “We will wait for two days owing to the Guwahati Municipal Corporation elections. If Mevani is not given bail in the meantime, we will start a movement.”
Flaying the arrest, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed it as “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”. Gandhi said it was an insult to the people who elected him as a public representative.