After an Assam court granted bail to Congress' Jignesh Mevani in a 'manufactured' assault case, the Congress MLA on Monday, 2 May, lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for attempting to defame him by implicating him in a 'pre-planned conspiracy.'
The politician, two days after being released from prison, addressed reporters from the Congress headquarters in New Delhi and censured the PM and the Gujarat government for orchestrating his arrest over a 'tweet'.
"Some Godse bhakts who are sitting in the PMO were responsible for the FIR's against me," he told reporters on Monday.
In a scathing attack on the BJP government, Mevani asserted that while there had been no cases lodged over the repeated instances of exam paper leaks in Gujarat, the massive drug bust at Adani-owned Mundra port, the rape allegations levelled against a senior BJP minister in Gujarat and the genocidal calls against Muslims at the Haridwar Dharam Sansad, the state police had arrested him for merely a tweet directed at the PM.
"I was merely asking the prime minister to appeal for peace and harmony. For that, they arrested me. What does it show? It was a pre-planned conspiracy to destroy me. I was not provided a copy of the FIR… the Sections invoked against me were not disclosed. I was not allowed to talk to my lawyer… my privilege as an MLA was disregarded," the leader said.
He added that the Gujarat government should be 'ashamed' of themselves.
Case Against Mevani
The Gujarat MLA had first been arrested on 20 April, in connection with a case involving tweets pertaining to the PM, wherein he had stated, "PM Modi worships Godse."
His tweet urged for the PM to make an appeal for harmony in light of the recent events of communal violence in the state of Gujarat.
The tweet had "caused widespread criticism and has the propensity to disturb tranquility, prejudicial to maintenance of harmony among a certain section of people. It is more likely to incite a section of masses belonging to a certain community to commit an offence against other community," as per the complaint filed against him.
On 25 April, just after he was granted bail in another case, he was arrested in for allegedly assaulting a woman constable. The MLA maintained that both cases against him were 'false and frivolous'.
After leader's release two days ago, Mevani said:
"In the second case, they cooked up a story to frame a case by using a woman. The government is such a coward that it used a woman against me. Such a coward act it is."
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