Jignesh Mevani Sentenced To 6 Months In Prison In 2016 Case

AHMEDABAD: An Ahmedabad court on Friday sentenced Gujarat Congress working president and MLA Jignesh Mevani and 18 others to 6-month imprisonment in a 2016 case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate P N Goswami, who also imposed a fine on Mevani and 18 others has however granted them bail and stayed the sentence till October 17 to enable them to file appeals.

Mevani, accompanied by other Dalit rights groups, had held a protest in 2016 regarding the change of name of Gujarat University's law building. They demanded that the building be named after Dr BR Ambedkar.

It should be noted that Jignesh Mevani is currently out on bail granted by an Assam court. In April this year, he was arrested in connection with his purported tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mevani was arrested by an Assam police team from Palanpur town in Gujarat over a couple of his tweets.

He was brought to Assam and kept in the custody of Assam Police for several days, which had led to protests from opposition party Congress in Assam. The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee had put its weight behind Mevani, protesting the arrest of the Gujarat legislator. Elected as an independent MLA, Mr Mevani did not join the Congress party but had extended his support to Congress from outside in September 2019.

In May this year, a Gujarat court sentenced had Mevani to three months in jail in a 2017 case for taking out a rally without permission.

Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani, Reshma Patel, Kaushik Parmar of National Dalit Adhikar Manch, Kaushik Parmar, Subodh Parmar including 10 others were sentenced to three months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1000.Mevani and his associates led an `Azadi Kooch` from Mehsana to Dhanera of the neighbouring Banaskantha district in 2017.

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