In 2017, Mevani and his associates led an ‘Azadi March’ from Mehsana to Dhanera to commemorate one year since the infamous public flogging of some Dalits in Una, which sparked a large-scale agitation in the state.
Clarion India
NEW DELHI — Dalit activist and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and nine others were convicted by a magisterial court in a five-year-old case of holding an ‘Azadi march’ without permission and sentenced them to three months’ imprisonment.
The court in Mehsana, Gujarat held Mevani and nine others, including NCP functionary Reshma Patel and some members of Mevani’s Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, guilty of being part of an unlawful assembly, under section 143 of the Indian Penal Code.
In 2017, Mevani and his associates led an ‘Azadi Kooch’ from Mehsana to Dhanera in the neighboring Banaskantha district to commemorate one year since the infamous public flogging of some Dalits in Una, which sparked a large-scale agitation in the state.
The Mehsana ‘A’ division police had lodged an FIR under IPC section 143 against Mevani and others.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on all the 10 convicts, reports PTI.
On Monday, Mevani alleged that his arrest by Assam Police is a pre-planned conspiracy “designed” by the Prime Minister’s Office to destroy him ahead of assembly elections in the state and termed it an act of “56-inch cowardice”.
On April 30, 2022, the District Sessions court in Assam’s Barpeta granted bail to Jignesh Mevani, who was first arrested by the Assam police on April 20 in Gujarat in connection with an “objectionable” tweet against PM Narendra Modi.
