Image Courtesy:indiatvnews.com
In a huge relief for Jignesh Mevani, an Assam court has granted him bail in connection with a case involving two allegedly offensive tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The independent Member of Legislative Assembly from Gujarat was arrested on Wednesday night from the Palanpur circuit house in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district and was flown to Assam the next day as the complaint against him had been filed in Kokrajhar. Mevani was arrested 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.”
On Sunday, the court reserved order in connection with Mevani’s bail plea and remanded him to judicial custody, and the order was expected to be pronounced earlier today. However, a member of Mevani’s legal team told SabrangIndia that the Chief Judicial Magistrate had taken over the case in an unprecedented move earlier today when the bail order was expected to be pronounced at 10:30 A.M before the original magistrate’s court. The CJM court has now granted him bail.
Meanwhile, a source told SabrangIndia that personnel from Barpeta Police are already waiting to take Mevani into custody in connection with another case, however, details of that case are not yet known.
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