by Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI: Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was today re-arrested in a new case, just after a court in Assam’s Kokrajhar district granted him bail in a case over his tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The court had yesterday reserved its order on the bail application in the tweet case. Police in Barpeta in Assam, which had come to arrest Mr Mevani, are yet to say in which case the Gujarat MLA was re-arrested. Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani said that it is a conspiracy of the BJP and the RSS. They did this to tarnish my image. They are doing it organically. “They did it to Rohith Vemula, they did it to Chandrashekhar Azad, now they are targeting me,” Mevani told reporters today.Mention here that Gujarat MLA and Congress leader Jignesh Mevani was granted bail by a local court in Kokrajhar on Monday. In fact, the Assam Police had arrested Jignesh Mevani from Gujarat on Wednesday for tweeting against the Prime Minister.
This was followed by a hearing in Mevani’s case, including the bail plea, on Monday. In this, mevani has been given relief. Earlier, Mevani was produced before the court late on Sunday evening after the end of her three-day police custody. The cross-examination in the case lasted for more than two hours till 9.30 pm. According to Kokrajhar Additional Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panesar, Mewani was produced before the court once again on Monday morning, where his case, including his bail plea, was heard. Mevani, wrapped around her neck with an Assamese gamcha, was taken to Kokrajhar jail from the CJM’s residence. The matter came up for hearing at the CJM’s residence. Meanwhile, the Congress continued its sit-in demonstration in support of Mevani here. Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhupen Bora and MLAs Diganta Barman and S K Rashid held a silent march from the party office here to The Kokrajhar police station where Mevani was kept during her police custody.
Today, Rahul Gandhi termed the re-arrest as “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”. Congress MLAs and leaders were protesting daily demanding mevani’s release. Other opposition parties, including the AIUDF and the CPI(M), as well as the state’s lone independent MLA, had met Mevani during police custody and promised his support to him. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday termed the arrest of Jignesh Mevani by the Assam Police as “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”. Mevani, an independent MLA backed by the Congress, was arrested from Palanpur in Gujarat on Wednesday night after an FIR was lodged at kokrajhar police station under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act over his alleged tweets against the prime minister.According to the FIR, he had allegedly put out a tweet claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “considers Godse to be God.” Mevani was taken to Guwahati from Gujarat on Thursday morning and then by road to Kokrajhar, where he was produced before the chief judicial magistrate’s court. The court remanded them to three more days’ police custody. Jignesh Mevani, 41, has been charged with criminal conspiracy, offences related to the place of worship, inciting and inciting religious sentiments that could lead to breach of peace.
