The Congress on Friday staged a demonstration outside Kokrajhar police station demanding the immediate release of Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani who was arrested by the Assam Police on Wednesday night over a tweet.
The Gujarat MLA was sent to 3-day judicial custody by a court in Kokrajhar. Congress raised slogans against the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mevani, an Independent MLA supported by the Congress was arrested from Palanpur town in Gujarat after a First Information Report (FIR) under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act was filed at Kokrajhar police station over his purported tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to the FIR, he had purportedly posted a tweet, claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi ”considered Godse as God”.
Mevani was flown to Guwahati from Gujarat on Thursday morning and then taken to Kokrajhar by road, where he was produced at the chief judicial magistrate’s court, which remanded him in three days’ police custody.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) working president and MLA Jakir Hussain Sikdar, leading the protest, claimed that Mevani had been arrested to ”thwart his influence” in Gujarat.MLA Akhil Gogoi, also alleged that Assam’s chief minister and the chief of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), of which Kokrajhar is the headquarters, are working in connivance in this matter.”Whatever they may be saying now, it looks like the chief minister and the BTC chief (Pramod Boro) have discussed among themselves and did this (arrest Mevani).
It is nothing but an attempt to appease the BJP top brass,” he claimed.”It is strange that a person from Gujarat is arrested by Assam Police for a tweet…it’s like opening an umbrella in Assam when it’s raining in Gujarat,” the Raijor Dal president said. A team of three lawyers, led by the head of the legal cell of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Manoj Bhagawati, is representing the Gujarat MLA.
However, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Thursday claimed that he was not aware who Mevani was.
