Mevani, 9 others get 3-months of jail in 2017 Mehsana rally case

Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mevani and nine others were on Thursday sentenced to three months in jail for holding a rally in 2017 without the requisite permission.

A magisterial court in Mehsana issued the order against Mevani and several members of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch holding them guilty of unlawful assembly. The case pertains to the ‘Azaadi Kooch’ rally, which was held on July 12, 2017, to mark one year of the public flogging of some members of the Dalit community by “cow protectors” in Unda district of Gujarat in 2016.

After delivering the verdict, the court accepted Mevani’s plea for a stay on the order and granted bail to all the convicts till they file an appeal in the higher court against the judgment.

The rally had started at Mehsana and ended in Dhanera -- both in Banaskantha district.

All the ten convicts have been sentenced to three months imprisonment and a fine of ₹1,000 each. Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar was also one of the accused in the case but since he was not present when the charges were being framed, the court has ordered for a separate trial against him.

In Thursday’s judgment, additional chief judicial magistrate J A Parmar said there is no offence in holding a rally but holding it without permission is an offence.

“Having heard both the accused, it can be said that this is a strong case for disobedience to the law, which can never be justified, in the name of principles. Observance of the law is always conducive to strengthening a democratic system, while disobedience to the law can never have a salutary effect,” the judge said in the 49-page order.

“It appears that there caused no harm or damages occurred, but still, this court thinks fit to impose the sentence as well as the fine, to set example to those who have no respect for law, because the beacon of rule of law shines always and nobody is above law,” the order stated.

Speaking about the rally, Mevani said in a post on social media that it’s aim was to demand intervention from the Gujarat government to reclaim rights for the land allotted to Dalits that was illegally occupied.

“As a result of the march, thousands of landless Dalits got possession of their land after 49 years. As a step further in this direction, more than 1,500 acres of illegally occupied land worth ₹300 crore was reclaimed for Dalits of Gujarat,” said the independent MLA in his post.

He said it was an irony that despite laws like Land Grabbing Act and Atrocities Act being in force, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, instead of punishing those who are illegally occupying land of the poor Dalits, is giving priority to go behind those who are fighting for the landless poor.

Mevani, who offered support to Congress last year, was released on bail from Assam last week, days after being jailed for a purported tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nearly two weeks ago, the MLA was picked up by the Assam police from Palanpur in Gujarat over the tweet. Soon after being released on bail in the tweet case a few days later, he was rearrested for allegedly assaulting a policewoman who was part of the police party that accompanied him to Kokrajhar in Assam.

He was then granted bail in the second case and on Saturday he completed pending bail formalities at a court in Kokrajhar. Mevani was granted permission by the court to leave the Assam town as one of his bail conditions was to stay within the limits of the court’s jurisdiction.