Jignesh Mevani brought to Assam post arrest

Guwahati: The Congress MLA in Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani, was brought here in Assam after his arrest by Assam Police from Gujarat, PTI reported citing sources.

Mevani was arrested over a social media post.

Sources said that he was brought to Guwahati by air and landed at 11:00 am. He was later taken to Kokrajhar, some 220 km away, by road.

Mevani's aide, Suresh Jat, said that the frontline Dalit leader was arrested from the town of Palampur in Gujarat after a case was registered against him in Kokrajhar. The case against him was filed under IPC section 153A, which operates crimes relating to promoting enmity between communities, Suresh said. Also, 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, he added.

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.

"As per a document shared by the officials of the Assam Police, an FIR has been lodged over a tweet by Mevani a few days back. However, the tweet has been withheld by Twitter. It was about Nathuram Godse," Suresh said.

An independent MLA from Gujarat's Vadgam in Banaskantha district, Mevani had recently joined Congress.