Jignesh Mevani among those detained outside Gujarat Assembly

Jignesh Mevani

Jignesh Mevani, independent legislator from Gujarat who rallied support for the Dalit community and announced that he will fight for justice for Amrabhai Boricha was detained on Tuesday, along with other activists. According to news shared by Jignesh Mevani’s Social Media Team, the group was “detained for seeking justice for Amrabhai Boricha’s lynching” The post allged that the authorities’ “casteist face is out in the open!”

Gujarat govt has detained Jignesh Mevani & hundreds of Dalits for seeking justice for Amrabhai Boricha’s lynching!
Their casteist face is out in the open!
– Jignesh Mevani’s Social Media Team.
— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) March 23, 2021

Soon video clips of the group of men and women, who had gathered in solidarity on a call given by Mevani, the MLA from Vadgam, being rounded up roughly were shared on social media. The protestors were forcibly removed from the state’s Sachivalaya complex and taken away on waiting vehicles. They had gathered to rotest alleged inaction in the investigations into the recent killing of Dalit RTI activist Amrabhai Boricha.

Supporters of #Vadgam MLA @jigneshmevani80 were rounded up outside #Sachivalaya complex after they #protested the alleged inaction in the #killing of a Dalit RTI activist by a mob in #Ghogha recently.
Video credit: Ancela Jamindar pic.twitter.com/BKpnAxtpRt
— Ahmedabad Mirror (@ahmedabadmirror) March 23, 2021

When he had given the call to gather outside Gujarat Assembly and seek justice for the slain activist, Mewani had said, “Everytime I have demanded arrest of PSI Solanki in relation to a Dalit activist’s murder, I have been suspended from the Assembly. Now, we will put our demands on the street.” Mevani, has been at the forefront of seeking justice for Amrabhai Boricha, the Dalit RTI activist was hacked to death, allegedly by a group of Kshatriya men, in his home in Sanodar village of Ghogha taluka in Bhavnagar district earlier this month. It has been alleged that the investigations into the gruesome murder are proceeding at a snails pace.

Mewani had raised the issue in the legislative Assembly last week, asking Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja why Solanki, a police sub-inspector, who is an accused in the case, had not been arrested. As a result, Mevani was evicted from the Assembly, and suspended for a day by the Speaker. On Monday, March 22, he along with Boricha’s daughter Nirmala and son Mahesh and a group of Dalit citizens, and activists assembled at the Bhavnagar Collector’s Office to submit another memorandum of demands. It was here that Mewani announced that the demand for justice for Amrabai Boricha will now be taken to the streets and called for a protest outside theGujarat Assembly Gate No.1 According to another news report, on April 14, Ambedkar Jayanti, members of the Dalit community are also planning to take out a Lalakaar Yatra, or Challenge March, against oppression by the so called ‘upper castes’.