In what may come as a huge relief to lakhs of Dalits, human rights activists and the Congress, firebrand Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani was on Friday granted bail in the second case slapped on him by the Assam Police in a space of eight days.
Mevani, who led a major Dalit movement in Gujarat after the Una tragedy where seven Dalit boys were flogged and dragged on the streets before being thrown in front of a police station in July 2016, was granted bail by an Assam court in the case of an alleged assault on a woman police official.
His lawyer Angshuman Bora said the local Barpeta Sessions Court had on Thursday reserved its orders on Mevani’s bail. His first bail application was rejected two days ago by a local court and was remanded to police custody for five days.
The MLA, who is set to join the Congress and contest the upcoming State Assembly elections, was arrested for the second time after he was granted bail by a court in Assam’s Kokrajhar city in a case related to his tweet about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mevani had tweeted that the prime minister worshiped Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse.
The next case was filed after a complaint by a woman police officer named Debika Brahma, who had alleged that Mevani had “uttered slang words” and assaulted her while he was being taken from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar district.
Mevani was booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 294 (obscene act in any public place), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).
Meanwhile, dozens of Dalit organisations and activists who had planned a huge Jail Bharo Andolan across Gujarat on the state’s foundation day on May 1 and 1,100 villages with high Dalit population asserted that they would go ahead with their agitation if he is “framed” in any other case.
