Jignesh Mevani’s Arrest: NCSC Issues Notice to Gujarat, Assam

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued notice to the Chief Secretaries of Gujarat and Assam in connection with the arrest of Jignesh Mevani, a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Vadgam constituency in Gujarat.

Mevani was arrested by the Assam Police from a circuit house in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district at 11:30 P.M on April 20, 2022, for two allegedly offensive tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was then taken to Ahmedabad where he was kept overnight and flown to Assam the following day. It is alleged that the arrest was carried out in complete violation of procedures laid down in law for the arrest of a sitting MLA.

On April 25, the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM) and Jai Bhim Youth Group filed a complaint with the Mamlatdar’s office highlighting the discrepancies in Mevani’s arrest. The Mamlatdar is a local designation of an official with the Prant (district) office, and is the Head of revenue administration consisting of 50 groups of villages.

The complaint letter in Gujarati may be viewed here:

Dalit groups have been holding multiple protests across the state ever since Mevani was arrested.

While Mevani was granted bail by a Kokrajhar court in the Twitter case on April 25, he was re-arrested shortly thereafter by the Barpeta Police in connection with a case involving assaulting a female police officer. A lower court in Barpeta rejected Mevani’s bail plea in this case on April 26, and remanded him to five days police custody. Mevani is expected to appeal to a higher authority today.