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Journalism of Courage
In a relief for Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani, an Ahmedabad magistrate court on Tuesday acquitted the legislator along with 30 others in a 2017 case for unlawful assembly and allegedly obstructing a Rajdhani train at Ahmedabad’s Kalupur railway station, which was headed for New Delhi.
Mevani, his then aide Rakesh Maheriya and 29 others from Saroda village Ahmedabad district, including 13 women, were booked under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (common object unlawful assembly), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duties) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) as well as under Railways Act section 153.
Mevani, along with Saroda village residents had staged the protest, demanding possession of land parcels which were allotted to Dalits but remained in the possession of dominant upper caste people.
According to the First Information Report lodged on January 11, 2017, Mevani along with other protesters had climbed atop the engine of the train and had obstructed the train’s passage by lying down on the rail track.
Around 70 prosecution witnesses were examined, following which the magisterial court of P N Goswami acquitted all 31 accused in the case, which also included 13 women, according to one of the defence lawyer Govind Parmar.
Earlier, in November 2023 and October 2022, additional magistrate Goswami had acquitted Mevani along with other accused in two other cases where rioting charges were slapped for protesting in 2016.
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