Image Courtesy:indianexpress.com
Support is growing for Jignesh Mevani, the independent Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Vadgam in Gujarat, was arrested on Wednesday night from the Palanpur circuit house in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district and is being held in police custody in Kokrajhar in Assam in a case related to allegedly offensive tweets about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Friday, leaders of the Congress Party and even Akhil Gogoi of Raijor Dal met Mevani at the police station. They also held a demonstration against the youth leader’s arrest.
Today met @jigneshmevani80 at Kokrajhar Police Station.He is in a pretty jovial mood and is in a fighting spirit. He doesn’t seem to be tensed at all. After that protested outside the police station for his release. pic.twitter.com/lSJoXTnxNE
— Akhil Gogoi (@AkhilGogoiAG) April 22, 2022
Pradesh Congress Committee’s Legal Cell Chairman Monoj Bagabati who met Mevani along with Shajahan Ali and Konkon Das, told the Telegraph, “Mevani was very relaxed and composed when we met him for over an hour on Friday. He also spoke about the work he and his colleagues are doing for the marginalised.” They he is being provided proper food and clothing in custody.
Brief background of the case
Mevani had been arrested on the complaint of BJP member Arup Kumar Dey of Bhabanipur village in Kokrajhar for posting two tweets that have since been blocked in India.The Telegraph has shared the following text of the Tweets:
“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 has 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.
Grounds for arrest and denial of bail
The police opposed Mevani’s bail as they feared that Mevani’s tweet could “disturb public tranquility” and was “prejudicial to maintaining harmony among a certain section of people”. They fear the tweet “may cause disaffection” and “promote enmity” between groups. They further said that Kokrajhar was a “communally sensitive district” and that Mevani’s tweet had “created tensions among different communities”.
The court while denying Mevani bail observed, “There is incriminating material in the case diary against the accused person.” Thecourt 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.”
A copy of his FIR, the original complaint by Dey, details of grounds of his arrest bail denial order, may be read here:
His team plans to appeal against the denial of bail in the high court.
Why is Mevani being targeted?
The timing of Mevani’s arrest is noteworthy as Assembly elections are due in Gujarat this year. It may be recalled that he could not join the Congress along with fellow activist-turned-politician Kanhaiya Kumar in September 2021 due to a technicality but would have joined after his term ended this year. Mevani had created history when he, a Dalit rights activist with modest means, had won the election despite running as an independent. The Congress party has now thrown their weight behind Mevani.
MLA arrest procedures violated?
Mevani’s team alleges that procedures set in law for the arrest of a sitting MLA were ignored with impunity in this case. In fact, Mevani himself was clueless about the charges on which he was being arrested. His team wasn’t handed a copy of the FIR until much later.
NewsClick reported that the Gujarat police had conducted search and seizures at Mevani’s home in Ahmedabad, his MLA quarters, homes of his team members and even the office of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM), a Dalit rights organisation founded by him.
RDAM member and advocate Subodh Parmar told the web portal, “On the morning of April 21, personnel from Ahmedabad Crime Branch visited the office of RDAM in Rakhiyal, Ahmedabad and seized the desktop and its CPU. They also visited home of Kamlesh Katariya in Rakhial, Ahmedabad who is member of RDAM and Mevani’s assistant in the organisation. His mobile was seized by the police. Police then visited Mevani’s MLA quarters and seized two desktops, CPUs, some posters and mobile phones of two of his associates. The same day evening, the police visited residence of Satish, Mevani’s personal assistant in Palanpur. But Satish was not at home so police seized his parents’ mobile phones. They also visited Mevani’s family home in Meghaninagar, Ahmedabad and confiscated some files in presence of his father. Mobile was also seized from Jagdish Chavda, another team member of RDAM who resides near Mevani’s home in Ahmedabad.”
Further, police allegedly failed to follow protocol when they picked up Mevani from the Palanpur circuit house. “No protocol of arresting an elected MLA was followed by the Assam police. They brazenly entered the circuit house late in the night and seized Mevani’s mobile and told him there was an FIR against him and they had come to arrest him. Only after protests at Ahmedabad airport, a copy of complaint was given to us but moment before they boarded the plane,” Parmar told NewsClick.
Some related laws and procedures
A) Exemption of members of legislative bodies from arrest and detention under civil process
According to section 135A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, that deals with the Exemption of members of legislative bodies from arrest and detention under civil process, “No person shall be liable to arrest or detention in prison under civil process:
(a) if he is a member of–
(i) either House of Parliament, or
(ii) the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a State, or
(iii) a Legislative Assembly of a Union territory,
during the continuance of any meeting of such House of Parliament or, as the case may be, of the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council;
(b) if he is a member of any committee of–
(i) either House of Parliament, or
(ii) the Legislative Assembly of a State or Union territory, or
(iii) the Legislative Council of a State,
during the continuance of any meeting of such committee;
(c) if he is a member of–
(i) either House of Parliament, or
(ii) a Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a State having both such Houses,
during the continuance of a joint sitting, meeting, conference or joint committee of the Houses of Parliament or, Houses of the State Legislature, as the case may be,
and during the forty days before and after such meeting, sitting or conference.”
This is significant because the 2022 Budget Session of the Gujarat Assembly began in March, therefore Mevani’s arrest falls in the 40-day period after the session.
B) Summons to produce document or other thing; issue of search warrant
Under section 91 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, “Any person required under this section merely to produce a document or other thing shall be deemed to have complied with the requisition if he causes such document or thing to be produced instead of attending personally to produce the same.”
Therefore, if the police wanted some document or device, they could have issued summons for production of the same, instead of just grabbing things during the multiple search operations. Police are also required to maintain detailed lists of documents, devices and other object seized during such operations.
UnderSection 93 of the CRPC, a Search Warrant is primarily meant to succeed a S91 process which is or is likely to be unheeded.But in this case searches were carried out without giving the parties a chance to willingly offer the document, devices etc. sought by the police.
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