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Journalism of Courage
A local court in Assam’s Kokrajhar district Monday granted bail to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani who was arrested last week in connection with an allegedly defamatory tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The Kokrajhar court has granted bail. We are completing the formalities,” Angshuman Bora, Mevani’s counsel said. His lawyers, however, said they suspect that another case has been filed against the MLA in neighbouring Barpeta district and that he is likely to be re-arrested.
Manoj Bhagawati, head of the Congress’s legal cell and part of the team assisting Mevani, said they had information that another case has been filed in Barpeta. “It is unlikely that he will be released,” Bhagawati said.
Barpeta SP Amitabh Sinha did not answer repeated calls.
Mevani — an Independent MLA who had pledged his support to the Congress in September last year — was produced at the chief judicial magistrate court in Kokrajhar on Sunday after completing three days’ police remand. The court, however, reserved its judgment on his bail petition till Monday and sent Mevani to judicial custody for a day.
During Sunday’s hearing, the Assam Police had sought 10 days’ custody of the MLA, a senior police official said. Bora had argued that there was no “prima facie evidence for the charges” against the legislator.
Mevani was arrested by the Assam Police from Gujarat’s Banaskantha district following a complaint by a BJP leader from the north-eastern state that the MLA had allegedly tweeted that Modi “considered Godse as God”.
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