Jignesh Mevani was released on bail in an alleged assault case in Assam
Guwahati:
An Assam court has criticized state police for trying to implicate Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani in a “fabricated case” of assaulting a female cop.
Mevani, who was arrested on April 25 in the “manufactured” assault case just after being released on bail by another court in Assam in a case over tweets by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was released on bail today by the court in Barpeta in Assam.
The Barpeta Court, in its order to release Mevani on bail, has asked the Gauhati Supreme Court to file its own petition against the recent excesses of the police in the state.
The BJP is in power in Assam, and Mevani has claimed the ruling party is behind his arrest over the tweets against Prime Minister Modi and the subsequent alleged attack on the female agent, which the court has now called a “fabricated case”.
The hearing judge also asked the Gauhati High Court to order Assam police to wear body cameras and install CCTV cameras in their vehicles to record the sequence of events when a suspect is taken into custody.
“Turning our hard-earned democracy into a police state is simply unthinkable,” said Judge Aparash Chakraborty of the injunction hearings. “If the present case is believed to be true, and given the statement of the woman recorded by the magistrate…which is not the case, we will have to rewrite the country’s criminal case law,” the court said.
“Contrary to the FIR (first intelligence report), the woman has given a different story to the learned magistrate… Given the woman’s testimony, the present case has been fabricated for the purpose of keeping the accused Jignesh Mevani in custody for an extended period of time.” abusing the process of the court and the law for a period of time,” the court said.
“To prevent the registration of false FIR like the current one and to give credibility to the police version of events… The Supreme Court may consider ordering the Assam Police Force to reform itself by taking some measures, such as instructing any police personnel to wear body cameras, to install CCTV in vehicles while a suspect is being arrested… Otherwise, our state will become a police state, which society can afford to pay badly,” said the trial judge.
After he was released today, Mr Mevani said that by “using a woman” to “frame a case” against him, the ruling BJP had done a “cowardly thing”. “My arrest was not an easy matter. It must have been ordered by political bosses of the PMO (the Prime Minister’s Office),” Mevani told DailyExpertNews today.
“…And in the second case, they made up a story to frame a case by using a woman. The government is such a coward that they used a woman against me. It’s such a coward act,” said the Gujarat MLA. , added that the ruling BJP is doing all this in view of the Gujarat elections, which will be held later this year.
