'Jhukega nahi', says Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani after getting bail in policewoman 'assault' case

Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was given bail by a court in Assam's Barpeta district on Friday in a case where he was accused of "assaulting" a policewoman while being brought by a police posse from Guwahati to Kokrajhar.

Speaking to reporters, Mevani alleged that the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) did a "cowardly thing" by "using a woman" to "frame a case" against him. He also alleged that it "must have been done under the instruction of political bosses at the PMO (Prime Minister's Office)". The Dalit leader further said that he will not bow down (jhukega nahi).

Earlier in the day, Barpeta District and Sessions judge Paresh Chakraborty granted bail to Mevani on a Personal Recognisance (PR) bond of Rs 1,000 in the case filed at the Barpeta Road police station.

The court had heard both Mevani's lawyer and the public prosecutor on Thursday on the bail application and reserved judgement for Friday.

Jignesh Mewani, an independent MLA from Gujarat had been picked up by a posse from Assam police last week from Gujarat and arrested 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".

The MLA from Vadgam seat in Banaskantha, who has pledged his support to the Congress, had used the same tweet to also urge Modi to appeal for communal harmony during his visit to Gujarat, the FIR at Kokrajhar Police Station.

After being released on bail in the case on his tweet, the Dalit leader from Gujarat was rearrested after being charged with assaulting a policewoman who was part of the police party which accompanied him to Korkrajhar, a complaint for which had been registered in Barpeta.

In this case, he was 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).

The court on Tuesday had sent him to five days in police custody.

(With PTI inputs)

Published on: Friday, April 29, 2022, 07:55 PM IST