Jignesh Mevani Rearrested by Assam Police Minutes After Bail

Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani was rearrested in a fresh first information report (FIR) filed in Barpeta district of Assam on Monday minutes after a chief judicial magistrate in the Kokrajhar district granted him bail in a case registered against him for allegedly defamatory tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mevani, who was first arrested from the Palanpur Circuit House in Banaskantha, North Gujarat, at 11.30 pm on April 21, was rearrested under Sections 294, 323, 354 of the Indian Penal Code for assaulting a woman officer and obstructing a public servant from discharging his/her duty.

“Jignesh Mevani was taken back to Kokrajhar Jail after being granted bail by first class chief judicial magistrate Bhavna Kakoty. However, he was rearrested within minutes in another FIR lodged at the Barpeta Police Station of Assam related to assaulting a women officer and obstructing a government servant from discharging duty while he was in custody in a different district. The police were already in court waiting to rearrest him,” the independent MLA’s lawyer Angshuman Bora told the media in Assam.

“We have also been informed of a second FIR lodged at Goalpara Police Station but we don’t know the under which Section(s) as of now,” Bora added.

“We have been told that he was granted bail but rearrested in another case lodged at Barpeta Police Station. We are worried and have no further information on the matter,” Subodh Parmar, an advocate and member of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, floated by Mevani post the Una flogging incident, told Newsclick.

The Dalit leader was arrested after one Arup Dey, an executive member of the Bodoland Territorial Council and Member of Council Legislative Assembly in Bodoland Territorial Council lodged an FIR regarding his April 18 tweet ahead of Modi’s visit to Gujarat.

Mevani had tweeted: “Godse ko apna aradhya manne wale pradhanmantri Narendra Modi 20 tarikh se Gujarat daure pe hai, unse appeal hai ki Gujarat me Himmatnagar, Khambat aur Veraval me jo kaumi hadse huye hai uske khilaf shanti aur aman ka appeal kare. Mahatma mandir ke nirmata se itni ummid to banti hai. (PM Narendra Modi, who idealises Godse, is set to commence his Gujarat tour on 20th. I appeal to him to appeal for peace and brotherhood in Himmatnagar, Khambat and Veraval, which recently witnessed communal tension. I hope this much can be expected of someone who built Mahatma Mandir).”

Acting on Dey’s complaint, filed at Kokrajhar Police Station on April 19, Mevani was arrested within two days. Meanwhile, protests against Mevani’s arrest in Gujarat have intensified with massive crowds protesting in Tharad, in Suredranagar district of Saurashtra, and Chanasma, in North Gujarat’s Mehsana.