NEW DELHI, April 26: Gujarat’s Independent member of the state Assembly Jignesh Mevani was on Tuesday sent to five days police custody in connection with a complaint filed by a woman police constable of Assam accusing him of assault and molestation.
The case was filed at the Barpeta road police station on April 21, in which Mevani has been accused under laws dealing with obscene acts or words in public, voluntarily causing hurt, using criminal force to deter public servants from discharge of his/her duty and outraging a woman’s modesty. The MLA’s counsel said he would move the bail petition at a higher court in Barpeta on Wednesday.
“We are absolutely surprised. There was not a whisper about the assault on officials when he was under police custody for three days. Suddenly after he was granted bail on Monday in another case that he was shown as rearrested in this case,” Mevani’s lawyer said. The Dalit leader was granted bail on Monday in a case involving tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for which he was picked up from Palanpur in Gujarat by the Assam police last week.
(Manas Dasgupta)
