Finally, Jignesh Mevani gets bail

After two arrests in eight days and seven days of them under police custody, an Assam court on Friday finally granted bail to Gujarat’s firebrand Dalit Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani in a second alleged case of misbehaving with a lady sub-inspector in a police vehicle.

Mevani’s first reaction was a strongly-worded tweet that reflected that his ordeal had only strengthened his police will to fight back. He tweeted after his bail: “I have faith in the Indian judiciary, I had to get bail. BJP and PM Modi arrested me just for a tweet and kept me in jail in Assam, what message do they want to give? This was a conspiracy planned at PM’s office. I will fight against BJP and RSS all my life.”

Mevani, who led a major Dalit movement in Gujarat after the shocking flogging of Dalit boys in July 2016 who were stripped and dragged by the assailants who dumped him outside a police station, was granted bail by an Assam court in the case of an alleged assault on a woman police official. The court went to the extent of observing the case slapped on him appeared a made-up case, and pulled up the cops.

His lawyer Angshuman Bora said the local Barpeta Sessions Court on Thursday reserved its orders on Mevani’s bail.

The MLA, who won from the Vadgam Assembly constituency in North Gujarat as an Independent with Congress support is now set to join the Congress and contest the upcoming assembly poll.

Meanwhile, dozens of Dalit organisations and activists who had planned a huge Jail Bharo Andolan across Gujarat on the state’s foundation day on May 1 and 1,100 villages with a high Dalit population asserted that they would go ahead with their agitation if he is “framed” in any other case.