A metropolitan court in Ahmedabad on Friday sentenced independent MLA and the working state president of Gujarat Congress Jignesh Mevani to six months in prison in connection with the 2016 roadblock protest case. Besides Mevani, the court also convicted 18 others involved in the case after an FIR was filed against them for protesting to name a building in Gujarat University’s law department after Dr B R Ambedkar.
Mevani and others were pronounced guilty of charges that included rioting, and unlawful assembly among others. The additional chief judicial magistrate P N Goswami sentenced them to six months in jail and a fine of Rs 700 each. The judgment came after it stayed the order for a month allowing the convicts the time to challenge the verdict.
Mevani, an independent MLA from Vadgam who was appointed as the working state president of the Gujarat Congress, reacted to the judgment by saying, “Gujarat government released all rapists from jail, garlanded them and said that their conduct was very good. C R Patil, the Gujarat BJP president, has nearly 108 cases against him but in none of the cases, he had been convicted. But, this is the second case against the agitators who have been sentenced to six months in jail for carrying out a rally demanding a building to be named after Baba Saheb Ambedkar. We welcome the judgement.”
In 2016, a complaint was filed with the Gujarat University police station in Ahmedabad against Mevani and 19 others linked to Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch for carrying out a protest demanding the under-construction building of the law department be named after Ambedkar. Mevani and others had blocked the road and when the police tried to clear it, they started undressing themselves to oppose them. The police have booked them for rioting, and unlawful assembly among other charges.
Earlier in May, Mevani and nine others were sentenced to three months in jail by Mehsana court in connection with a case registered in 2017 for organising a rally without permission. The court granted him conditional bail, prohibiting him from travelling outside Gujarat without its permission.
In April this year, Assam Police arrested Jignesh Mevani for posting objectionable tweets. His tweets were later withheld by Twitter due to a request by authorities.
Mevani was booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), section 153(A) (promoting enmity between two communities), 295(A), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and sections of the IT Act.