Guwahati: The District Sessions court in Assam’s Barpeta on Friday granted bail to Independent MLA from Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani, who 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 again arrested by the Barpeta police on April 25 on different charges, including “outraging the modesty of a lady police officer” soon after the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Kokrajhar district granted him bail.
Mevani’s lawyer Angshuman Bora on Friday said that his (Mevani’s) bail application was granted by the Barpeta District Sessions court on a personal bond and surety of Rs 1,000.
“We yet to get the detailed order of the court. We are not sure when Mevani would come out from the police custody,” Bora told IANS.
The 41-year-old legislator, who was elected from the 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 sent to five-day police custody by Barpeta’s chief judicial magistrate on April 26 on charges of “voluntarily causing hurt”, “criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty” and “force on a woman cop intending to outrage her modesty”.
Meanwhile, the Congress organised a series of demonstrations across Assam since last week against the “undemocratic arrest” of Mevani, who had earlier pledged outside support to the party.
The Gujarat legislator was arrested on April 20 following a complaint filed against him by an Assam BJP leader seeking action against Mevani under the IT Act.
Mevani had earlier alleged that his arrest is a deep-rooted conspiracy by the BJP and RSS.
“They (BJP and RSS) are doing this to tarnish my image and are doing this systematically. They did it to Rohit Vemula, they did it to Chandrasekhar Azad, now they are targeting me,” he had told the media.
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