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Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani arrested by Assam police over tweet

Jignesh Mevani, independent MLA and a leading Dalit activist, was arrested by an Assam Police team on Wednesday midnight from a circuit house at Palanpur in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district.

His arrest for a controversial tweet was based on a complaint lodged by Arup Kumar Dey, a BJP leader from Bhabanipur village in western Assam’s Kokrajhar district. The FIR was registered at the Kokrajhar police station on April 19.
Congress supporters are detained at Sarangpur during a protest against the arrest of MLA Jingnesh Mevani in Ahmedabad on April 21, 2022.

Mevani’s supporters said the police did not have a copy of the FIR with them when they arrested him in a non-bailable offence under relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act. He is being taken by train to be produced before a court in Assam. Kokrajhar’s Superintendent of Police Thube Prateek Vijay Kumar did not take calls. But another police official said Mevani’s arrest was in connection with an April 18 tweet the complainant found “objectionable”. The tweet was removed later.

Dey’s complaint said Mevani took to Twitter to say “Prime Minister Narendra Modi worships and considers (Nathuram) Godse as God”. Referring to the MLA’s advice to the Prime Minister to appeal for peace and harmony during his April 20 visit to communal violence-affected places in Gujarati, the complainant said the tweet “has the propensity to disturb public tranquility, prejudicial to maintenance of harmony among a certain section of people”.

Soon after the midnight arrest, the Gujarat Congress posted a video on its Twitter handle showing Mevani speaking to the media while being escorted by the police. “I have not been informed about the case, where it’s been filed. I have not been shown any papers related to the case,” he said.

The MLA also said his tweet was meant to promote communal harmony and brotherhood. “My arrest is in violation of the established norms. I will fight,” he added. Mevani represents the Vadgam Assembly constituency.