On Sunday, a court in Assam’s Kokrajhar district reserved its order in the matter related to his bail plea and remanded him to judicial custody for one day in the interim. Mevani had previously been remanded to three days police custody on Thursday night, and his custody ended on Sunday. The order in the bail plea is expected to be pronounced at 10:30 A.M today on Monday.
Mevani had been arrested on Wednesday night from the Palanpur circuit house in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district and was flown to Assam based on a complaint by BJP member Arup Kumar Dey of Bhabanipur village in Kokrajhar, for posting two tweets that have since been blocked in India. The tweets reportedly said:
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who considers Godse his worshipping deity, is on a tour of Gujarat from April 20. I request him to make an appeal for peace in Himmatnagar, Khambat and Veraval which suffered communal clashes. This is the minimum one expects from the builder of Mahatma Mandir.”
“The traitors of Nagpur who didn’t accept the tricolor for decades, the same RSS people were dancing at a mosque with saffron flag in Veraval. Traitors, have some shame. Maintain peace and harmony in the country of Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan.”
Mevani was picked up from the Palanpur guest house around 11 P.M on Wednesday night and first taken to Ahmedabad. The next morning, he was flown to Assam and taken to Kokrajhar. Mevani was booked under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 153 A (promoting enmity between groups), 295 A (outraging and insulting religious beliefs), 504 (insult with intent to provoke) and 505 (public mischief).
On Thursday, the court of the Kokrajhar Chief Judicial Magistrate had remanded Jignesh Mevani to three days police custody and also said that he cannot be taken out of Kokrajhar by the police. He was denied bail. The court while denying Mevani bail observed, “There is incriminating material in the case diary against the accused person.” The court accepted the Investigating Officers submission that there was “credible evidence” against Mevani, and concluded that there were “reasonable grounds for the arrest of the accused person and police remand”.
The court however, directed the police “not to cause any torture to the accused during the period of police custody.” The court specifically said, “I.O is directed to strictly follow the guidelines of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in D.K Basu’s case during police custody.”
Related:
Jignesh Mevani arrested over tweet against PM Modi
Assam court remands Jignesh Mevani to three days police custody
Were search, seizure and arrest procedures violated in the case of Jignesh Mevani?