The case was filed at the Barpeta Road Police Station on April 21
Kokrajhar:
Gujarat’s independent MLA Jignesh Mevani has been charged with assault and molestation by a female police officer who was part of the team that took him from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar. Police sources said the officer claimed that Mr Mevani verbally assaulted her as they drove through the Barpeta district of Assam. He also made rude gestures and pushed her against the car seat, sources said.
The case was filed on April 21 at Barpeta Police Station, where Mr Mevani has been charged under laws pertaining to obscene acts or words in public, voluntarily causing pain, using criminal force to deter officials from performing his duty fulfillment and indignation of modesty.
The Dalit leader, who was released on bail on Monday in one case, was arrested immediately afterwards in the second case, about which police have given few details.
Mevani was initially arrested Thursday from Gujarat’s Palanpur after a complaint was filed against him by an Assam BJP leader over his tweets at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 41-year-old who previously said it was “vendetta politics by the PMO (the Prime Minister’s Office)”, added yesterday that it was a “conspiracy” by the BJP and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh .
“They’ve done this to tarnish my image. They’ve done this systematically. They’ve done it to Rohit Vemula, they’ve done it to Chandrasekhar Azad, now they’re targeting me,” Mevani told reporters.
Mevani was charged yesterday with criminal conspiracy, violation regarding the place of worship, outrage over religious sentiment and provocation. He received bail from a local court in Kokrajhar yesterday.
The new allegations against Mevani are “horrific” and no mention was made of the Barpeta case as he spent three days in police custody, Mevani’s lawyer Angshuman Bora said, according to Press Trust of India news agency.
“We are absolutely surprised. There was no whisper of the attack on officials while he was under police custody for three days. Suddenly after he was released on bail, he was arrested again,” said Mr Mevani’s lawyer.
Bora said they will move to Barpeta Court on Tuesday for his bail.
