MLA Jignesh Mevani gets jail for protest march

Mehsana, May 5

A magisterial court in Mehsana town of Gujarat on Thursday convicted independent MLA Jignesh Mevani and nine others in a five-year-old case of holding a protest march without police permission, and sentenced them to three months of imprisonment.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate JA Parmar held Dalit leader Mevani and nine others, including NCP leader Reshma Patel, guilty of being part of an unlawful assembly under Section 143 of the IPC. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on each of the 10 convicts, who include members of Mevani’s Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch. After delivering the verdict, the court accepted Mevani’s plea for a stay on the order and granted bail to all convicts till they file an appeal in the higher court against this judgement.

Mehsana ‘A’ division police had registered an FIR against Mevani and others for trying to take out ‘Azadi Kooch’ or “Freedom March” from Mehsana to Dhanera in Banaskantha district in July 2017 without the police permission. Reshma Patel, a Patidar quota leader back then, was not part of any political party when she took part in the march. Of the total 12 accused shown in the FIR, one had died, while trial against former president of JNU students’ union, Kanhaiya Kumar, who is also an accused, is still pending before the court.

On July 12, 2017, Mevani’s outfit had organised the march from Mehsana to Dhanera to mark the first anniversary of Una Dalit flogging incident.