Mevani granted bail in Assam policewoman assault case, released

Guwahati: A local court Assam’s Barpeta district on Friday granted bail to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, who was first arrested on April 20 for alleged offensive tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then again on April 25 for allegedly assaulting a policewoman, hours after he secured bail in the first case.

Barpeta district and sessions judge Aparesh Chakravarty criticised the police and urged the Gauhati high court to direct the state police force to “reform itself”.

“No sane person will ever try to outrage the modesty of a lady police officer in presence of two male police officers and there is nothing in the record to hold that the accused Shri Jignesh Mevani is an insane person,” Chakravarty, said in his bail order.

Also Read | ‘He isn’t insane’: Assam judge questions police charges against Jignesh Mevani

Senior advocate Angshuman Bora, who represented Mevani, informed that the legislator was released on a personal bond of ₹1000. Completion of bail formalities is expected to take some time and Mevani is likely to get released from custody on Saturday.

Following the bail order, Mevani was released from police custody in Barpeta district on Friday evening, but since he was arrested from Kokrajhar on Monday, he will have to complete his bail formalities in that district on Saturday, Mevani’s counsels informed. The MLA will be taken to Kokrajhar and will appear in court there and sign his bail bond for him to be able to leave jurisdiction of that district.

“I respect Indian judiciary and knew that I will get bail sooner or later. This was a concocted case and soon the entire truth will come out during trial. I will continue my fight for truth. They wanted to crush my spirit, but they failed,” Mevani told journalists after getting released from police custody in Barpeta.

The legislator from Vadgam was arrested on Monday, moments after getting bail from a court in Kokrajhar in a case of alleged offensive tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and sent to five days of police custody in Barpeta for allegedly assaulting a woman sub inspector. He was initially arrested in Palanpur for his alleged offensive tweets against the PM on April 20.

As per the FIR registered at Barpeta Road police station on April 21, Mevani, while being brought from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar (after his arrest in Gujarat a day earlier) had allegedly uttered slang directed at a woman police officer of Kokrajhar police station, who was also present in the vehicle.

The fresh case against Mevani was registered under section 294 (singing, reciting, uttering obscene song, ballad or words in or near public place), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty) and 354 (assault or criminal force on woman with the intention of disrobing or compelling her to be naked) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court held that there was no evidence about commission of offence under section 354 and the statement of the two male police officers accompanying the woman police officer when the incident allegedly happened “cannot be treated as admissible”.

The court noted that while the FIR mentioned that the woman officer informed her seniors after reaching Kokrajhar about alleged assault by Mevani, “surprisingly her senior officers did not register an FIR (in Kokrajhar itself), which is a clear violation of Section 154 of CrPC”.

Since there was no mention in the FIR of the slang words Mevani used against the officer, the court held it can’t be an obscene act as per Section 294 of IPC. It also added that a moving government vehicle cannot be termed a “public place” as per the same section of IPC.

“Pointing of fingers at the first informant (complainant) with intent to frighten her and pushing her down into her seat with force cannot be held to be using criminal force by the accused with the intent to prevent the first informant from discharging her duties as a public servant,” the order read.

“The alleged pushing down of the first informant into her seat also cannot be held to have been done with intent to outrage her modesty and that too, in presence of two other police officers,” it added.

The court noted that the complainant had “deposed a different story” before a magistrate, which is contrary to the FIR. It added that since the officer was sitting next to Mevani in a moving vehicle “body of the accused must have touch body of the victim woman and she felt the accused was pushing her”.

It was also observed that the officer didn’t mention Mevani using his hands to outrage her modesty and also there was no mention of utterances of obscene words at her. The complainant mentioned that the legislator abused her in his language, “which she definitely did not understand”.

“In view of the above testimony of the victim woman, the instant case is manufactured for the purpose of keeping the accused Shri Jignesh Mevani in detention for a longer period, abusing the process of the court and the law,” the order stated.

Expressing surprise about police lodging a fresh case against Mevani for allegedly committing an offence while he was in police custody where no one else was present, the court linked it with ongoing cases of alleged police encounters in Assam and requested the Gauhati high court to consider whether the issue can be taken up as a PIL “to curb the ongoing police excesses in the state”.

The Gauhati high court is hearing a petition filed by advocate Arif Jwadder alleging 80 incidents of fake encounters in the state since May 2021, which have allegedly resulted in 28 deaths and left 48 injured.

As earlier reported, the 41-year-old legislator from Vadgam was arrested at Palanpur in Gujarat on April 20 and brought to Guwahati the next day and taken to Kokrajhar by road the same day based on an FIR lodged by BJP leader Arup Kumar Dey.

He was sent to three-day police remand by a Kokrajhar court on April 21 and a day’s judicial remand on April 24. While the Kokrajhar court granted him bail on Monday, Mevani was rearrested by Barpeta police in connection with the fresh case.