Assam Court Sends Dalit Activist Jignesh Mevani To 5-Day Police Custody In Assault Case
Mevani had allegedly assaulted a woman officer when she was accompanying him from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar along with senior police officers.
Barpeta: Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was sent to five-day police custody on Tuesday by a court in Assam's Barpeta district in connection with an assault case filed by a woman police officer. According to reports, Mevani was remanded to police custody by Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukul Chetia when he was produced earlier in the day.
Megistrate's order came a day after Mevani was arrested soon after he was released on bail in another case in Kokrajhar district.
In the current case, the indepdent MLA has been booked under IPC sections 294 (uttering obscene words in public), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assaulting a public servant in the execution of duty) and 354 (using criminal force to a woman intending to outrage her modesty), news agency PTI reported.
The Congress-backed leader had allegedly assaulted a woman officer when she was accompanying him from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar along with senior police officers.
Mevani's lawyer Angshuman Bora told news agency IANS over phone that they would decide on Wednesday whether the bail petition would be moved to a higher court.
The woman cop has alleged that on April 21 when she was escorting Mevani from the Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar along with other police officers, the accused used slang words against her and pushed her on her seat with force.
Earlier, Mevani was arrested on April 19 from Palanpur town in Gujarat, and was brought to Kokrajhar for tweeting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After his re-arrest on Monday, Mevani had said that it is a deep-rooted conspiracy by the BJP and RSS.
"They (BJP and RSS) are doing this to tarnish my image and are doing this systematically. They did it to Rohit Vemula, they did it to Chandrasekhar Azad, now they are targeting me," he had said while speaking to reporters earlier.
Meanwhile, the Congress has been holding demonstrations in different parts of Assam, terming Mevani's arrest as a 'conspiracy'. It has also sent its legal teams to Kokrajhar and Barpeta districts to look into the matter.
(With inputs from agencies.)