Barpeta court rejects Jignesh Mevani’s bail in assault case

An Assam court has denied bail to Jignesh Mevani in a second case involving obstructing a public servant today. Mevani had been booked in this case and re-arrested shortly after getting bail in the Twitter case yesterday. Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukul Chetia has now remanded Mevani to five days police custody. Sources close to him have told SabrangIndia that he could move a bail plea before a higher forum tomorrow.

The case was filed on the complaint of a female police official who was accompanying Mevani from the Guwahati airport to the Kokrajhar police station on Friday. According to her complaint, Mevani used foul language against her, pushed her in a bid to prevent her from doing her duty and in doing so touched her inappropriately. She accused Mevani of uttering “slang words” and said that upon being asked to behave properly, he got even more agitated. She further said, “He pointed a finger towards me and tried to frighten me and push me on my seat with force. He thus assaulted me during the execution of my legal duty of being a public servant and outraged my modesty by touching me inappropriately while pushing.”

Senior counsel Angshuman Bora has been leading arguments in Mevani’s defence since Sunday. In the second case, while making strong arguments for Mevani’s release on bail Bora pointed out that while the MLA from Vadgam in Gujarat was produced on two occasions before the Magistrate in Kokhrajhar last week and then again on Sunday, no mention at all was made of this “offence” registered or lodged with the Barpeta police. Several judicial decisions of the Guwahati and Kolkatta High Courts require the police and prosecution to make known such other offences during the course of the hearing of a bail application. This clearly indicates, Bora argued, that the second FIR lodged in Barpeta was an after thought aimed at harassment and intimidation of a political rival.

Mevani was arrested by the Barpeta police in this case shortly after receiving bail in the Twitter case, on Monday, April 25. In this case, he has been booked under IPC sections 294 (obscene acts and songs), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging duty) and 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman). 

The Congress party, that has been rallying behind Mevani ever since he was first arrested on Wednesday night from the Palanpur circuit house in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district and was flown to Assam for posting allegedly offensive tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, continued to hold demonstrations demanding justice for the independent Member of Legislative Assembly from Gujarat, who is all set to formally join the party at the end of his term.

Party members chanted “Release Jignesh Mevani” while holding demonstrations outside Barpeta police station. Member of Parliament Abdul Kahleque and Member of Legislative Assembly Jakir Sikdar were present at the protest.

The not only condemned his arrest under allegedly trumped-up charges, but also the entire process where a sitting MLA was arrested and brought to another state without following basic procedures like informing the Speaker of the Assembly:

Another video of the protest may be viewed here:

SabrangIndia’s sources on the ground say that as many as 300 INC members and 100 CPM activists were present during the protest and some were even detained for the same. MP Abdul Khaleque who represents Barpeta in the Lok Sabha was one of the people taken to the police station, but released later. A news agency quoted him as saying, “We were forcefully put inside police vans and taken to Barpeta police station. After some time, we were released.”

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