Assam Police arrests Gujarat MLA, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani
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Ahmedabad: Assam Police on Wednesday arrested Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani from a Circuit House in Gujarat's Palanpur.
The reason behind the arrest of Mr Mevani, a Dalit leader and convenor of political party Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch is reportedly over a couple of tweets claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who "considers Godse as God," should appeal for peace and harmony against communal clashes in Gujarat.
His Twitter account shows that some recent tweets by him have been withheld due to a request by authorities.
He was taken to Ahmedabad on the same day and shall be taken to Assam on Thursday.
A close aide of Mevani said that the police were not giving details of the offence and it was only after a group of Congress leaders and his supporters created a ruckus at Ahmedabad airport, that the police showed a document revealing a case against Mevani for his tweets.
The document shows that based on a complaint by one Anup Kumar Dey, a resident of Bhabanipur in Kokrajhar district in Assam, a case was lodged against Mevani under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), section 153(A) (promoting enmity between two communities), 295(A) (Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and sections of the IT Act.
The Assam Police, which arrested Mr Mevani, plan to take him from Ahmedabad to Guwahati by train on Thursday.
Jignesh Mevani is a Member of the Legislative Assembly or MLA from Gujarat's Vadgam. He is a lawyer-activist and former journalist. He is an independent MLA but has extended support to Congress. He along with political activist and JNU's former students' union leader Kanhaiya Kumar had held a press conference with Congress's Rahul Gandhi where Mr Kumar had joined the Congress party and Mr Mevani extended his support to Mr Gandhi.