Barpeta: Gujarat MLA and Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani has been granted bail by a Assam court in a case of alleged assault of a policewoman. The order came after the court in Assam's Barpeta district reserved its order on Friday in connection with the case where he is accused of assaulting a policewoman while being brought by a police posse from Guwahati to Kokrajhar.






Mevani's advocate Angshuman Bora had told news agency PTI that the District and Sessions Court has reserved the order in his bail petition till Friday.


"We placed our arguments before the court. The prosecution side tried to take an adjournment. But the court declined it and asked them to submit their arguments today itself," he said. Mevani was rearrested on April 25 four days after get secured a bail in a case over a tweet by him against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 


The independent MLA, supported by the Congress, as booked under IPC Sections related to voluntarily causing hurt, assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty and others after the official concerned filed a complaint against him, the Police had said. 


The alleged incident took place when the female Police officer was escorting Mevani from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar along with Additional Superintendent of Police Surjeet Singh Panesar and another official in a government vehicle on April 21. 


Mevani rejected the claims made by Police and his lawyer said that allegations against Mevani were "atrocious" and there was no mention of the Barpeta case when he was in police custody for three days or at the time his bail plea was being argued in the Kokrajhar court. 


Mevani had alleged that this is a "conspiracy on the part of the BJP and the RSS to tarnish my image and systematically destroy me".


"They (BJP and RSS) did it with Rohit Vemula, Chandrasekhar Azad and now they are targeting me. They have serious problems with Dalits. We believe in the Indian Constitution. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was targeted by Savarkar and Modi is targeting Jignesh Mevani," he told reporters soon after his arrest orders were issued. 


Opposition Congress, which supports Mewani politically, took out a protest march against the arrest of the Dalit leader resulting in arrest of its Assam chief and other leaders.


Prior to this case, Mevani was arrested in Gujarat in a case against him for a purported tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he had claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "considered Godse as God".


(With inputs from PTI.)