A court in western Assam’s Barpeta rejected independent Gujarat MLA and Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani’s bail petition and sent him to five days’ police custody on Tuesday.
Mr Mevani was re-arrested on Monday on charges of “assaulting and outraging the modesty of a woman police officer” soon after another court in Kokrajhar, about 85 km west of Barpeta, granted him bail in a case related to an “offensive” tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Barpeta police had sought 12 days’ custody of Mr Mevani. But the court of the chief judicial magistrate, while rejecting his bail petition, gave them five days.
The MLA was first arrested by the Assam police from Gujarat’s Palanpur on April 20 based on an FIR lodged by Arup Kumar Dey, a BJP executive member in the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council for the controversial tweet against the Prime Minister.
Mr. Mevani had allegedly molested the woman police officer on April 21 while being escorted from the Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar. According to his lawyer, Angshuman Bora, the police did not mention this case while challenging his bail petition in the tweet-related case in Kokrajhar on Sunday.
The charges framed against the MLA in the second case were under sections 294 (obscene acts or words in public), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 354 (whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code.
While the court was hearing the case on Tuesday, some Assam Congress leaders demanding Mr Mevani’s release were briefly detained by the Barpeta police. Congress MP Abdul Khaleque slammed the BJP for “stifling freedom of speech”.
Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia said the first case against Mr Mevani was not such that the Assam police had to go to Gujarat to arrest him. The MLA should have been issued a notice first, he added.
“We fear more cases will be filed against him. We have seen it happening with (activist-turned-politician) Akhil Gogoi. People were arrested in the past and harassed. We fear Mevani could be a victim of a conspiracy and may even be killed,” Mr Saikia told journalists.
A Congress delegation on Tuesday tried in vain to meet Governor Jagdish Mukhi, who sought a written memorandum. Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor said in a tweet that Mr. Mevani had been arrested again for a “fabricated case”.
