From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Gujarat’s Dalit Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani (45), a lawyer and a former journalist, on Monday alleged that his arrest by Assam Police was a conspiracy designed by the office of the Prime Minister just because he tweeted that PM Modi should appeal for peace in his state.
He told a Press conference at the AICC headquarters here that FIRs were registered in Assam against him one after another only to harass him since the Assembly elections are on the cards in Gujarat this year end and the BJP wants to paint him as a criminal.
Mewani said he could not see any other reason for the BJP government in Assam taking cognizance of his tweet and sending its police 2500 km away to arrest him at midnight from his home and not giving him a copy of the FIR he sought as a lawyer. He wondered if appealing the PM for peace is also a crime.
He is an MLA of the Gujarat Assembly and so the police is duty-bound to inform the Assembly speaker about his arrest but even that formality was not completed and his arrest was played up as if they were arresting some terrorist.
What will the BJP or democracy gain from booking him 2500 km away in a framed case, Mewani asked and wanted to know what interest PM Modi has in this farce except to defame him in view of the coming Assembly elections.
He pointed out that drugs worth Rs 1.75 lakh in the international market were found at the Mundra Port of Gautam Adani, but since he is a friend of PM Modi, no action was taken against him, no FIR, no probe, not even summons for investigation, while a person is arrested even if 10 grams of drugs are found in his home.
Mewani said the PM is prejudiced against him since he has been raising such issues every day that are bound to damage the ruling BJP. He said the only other day a Dalit woman accused a sitting BJP minister of rape and the matter as also raised in the Gujarat Assembly, but no probe, not even registration of an FIR.
In the past 8-10 years of the BJP rule in Gujarat, there have been 22 exam paper leaks, but no probe and no arrest till todate, he said, adding that fictitious cases are being framed up against him since he has been raising these issues as the Gujarat Model of PM Modi.
