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Assam: Congress, opposition stage protest seeking Jignesh Mevani’s release
The Congress alleged that Jignesh Mevani was arrested on a trivial political charge and brought to Assam to keep him away from Gujarat, which is going to polls soon.
GUWAHATI: The Congress and other opposition parties in Assam staged a protest on Friday outside Kokrajhar police station seeking release of arrested Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani who was being kept there.
The Independent legislator from Vadgam was arrested on Wednesday night from Palanpur in Gujarat by a team of Assam Police after an FIR was lodged against him by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Kokrajhar over Mevani’s alleged offensive tweets targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mevani, the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikr Manch convener who supports the Congress, was brought to Guwahati on Thursday afternoon and produced in a local court in Kokrajhar district. Rejecting his bail plea, the court sent him to three days’ police remand.
“Mevani has a lot of influence among voters in Gujarat and since the state is going to polls soon, he was arrested on a trivial political charge and brought to Assam to keep him away. We demand his unconditional release immediately,” said Assam Congress working president Jakir Hussain Sikdar.
Sibsagar MLA and Raijor Dal President Akhil Gogoi and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) legislator Manoranjan Talukdar also joined the protest outside the Kokrajhar police station and demanded Mevani’s immediate release.
“Has the alleged tweet by Mevani led to any adverse situations in Assam? Mevani’s arrest is an attempt by the BJP-led government of Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam to please the party’s top leadership ahead of the Gujarat assembly polls,” said Gogoi.
Meanwhile, Arup Kumar Dey, the executive member of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), who had filed a complaint against Mevani on April 19, talked to the media on Friday and justified the lodging of the complaint.
“Mevani had targeted the Prime Minister in his tweets. The PM represents 1.3 billion people of the country and he shouldn’t be targeted in this manner. I lodged the case to ensure that in future no legislator or elected representative makes such comments on social media platforms,” said Dey.
The Congress in Assam has engaged three senior counsels to give legal aid to Mevani. The party is planning to move the Gauhati high court or the Kokrajhar court next week seeking the arrested MLAs bail.
“I met Mevani on Friday. He’s healthy and in a good mood. This is a politically motivated case and we are confident of securing bail soon. On Saturday, senior Congress leader Salman Khursid and another lawyer from Gujarat is expected to join our legal team,” said advocate Manoj Bhagawati, one of the three lawyers engaged by Congress.
Senior police officials in Assam continued to remain tight-lipped about details and investigation into the case.
