Assam Congress workers protest outside police station demanding Mevani’s release

Guwahati, April 22 : Congress workers in Assam on Friday staged a protest demonstration outside Kokrajhar police station, where Dalt leader Jignesh Mevani has been kept in custody for his alleged offensive tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Opposing Mevani’s “illegal arrest”, Congress activists raised slogans against the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded the Gujarat lawmaker’s immediate release.Mevani was arrested on Wednesday night By Assam Police from Patalpur town in Gujarat in connection with an FIR lodged in the Northeastern state.According to the FIR, he had purportedly posted a tweet, claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi “considered Godse as God”.Mevani was flown to Guwahati from Gujarat on Thursday morning and then driven to Kokrajhar by road, where he was produced at the chief judicial magistrate’s court, which remanded him to three-day police custody.Independent Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi alleged that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in order to please the Prime Minister and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.(RSS) has arrested Mevani over a normal tweet that has not sparked any reaction in the state. “It is strange that a person from Gujarat is arrested by Assam Police for a tweet; it’s like opening an umbrella in Assam when it’s raining in Gujarat,” Gogoi said. A team of three lawyers, led by the head of the legal cell of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Manoj Bhagawati, is representing the MLA. Mevani had won as an independent MLA from Vadgam (SC) seat of Banaskantha district in 2017 with Congress support. Though he is “ideologically” with Congress, he has not joined the party officially. ABI SSP