NEW DELHI ,May 6: Dalit activist and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and nine others were charged by a magisterial court in a five-year-old case of holding an ‘Azadi march’ without permission and sentenced them to three months’ imprisonment.
The court in Mehsana, Gujarat held Mevani and nine others, including NCP functionary Reshma Patel and some members of Mevani’s Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, were charged of being part of an assemble of 2017, ‘Azadi March’ from Mehsana to Dhanera to commemorate.
Dalit leader Mevani said that his arrest by Assam Police is a pre-planned conspiracy “designed” by the Indian Prime Minister’s Office to destroy him ahead of assembly elections in the Gujrat state and termed it an act of “56-inch cowardice”.
On April 30, 2022, the District Sessions court in Assam’s Barpeta granted bail to Jignesh Mevani, who was first arrested by the Assam police on April 20 in Gujarat in connection with a tweet criticism on Indian PM Narendra Modi.