On May 5, a magisterial court in Gujarat convicted independent MLA Jignesh Mevani and nine others and sent them to 3-months of imprisonment. The court convicted Mevani for a 5-year-old case for holding an ‘Azadi’ march without permission.
NCP functionary Reshma Patel and members of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (Mevani’s org) were found guilty by the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate JA Parmar. They were sentenced under Section 143 of the Indian Penal Code. Apart from the jail time, all the convicts have been imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each.
In July 2017, Mevani organized an ‘Azadi March’ from Mehsana to Dhanera in Banaskantha district without taking due permission. The Mehsana ‘A’ division police had filed an FIR against him and others under Section 143 of the IPC. One of the accused had died, and one is still absconding out of the 12 who were named accused in the FIR.
Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar was also one of the accused. However, he was not present at the time of framing charges. The court had ordered a separate trial for him.
Notably, Mevani had recently come out of Assam jail after spending a few days under police custody. He was remanded for five days for allegedly assaulting Assam Police personnel. He was arrested first for a tweet against PM Modi, and when he got bail for that case, Assam Police arrested him again for assaulting Assam Police Personnel.
Mevani was arrested by Assam Police from Banaskantha on April 21. After spending nearly 2 weeks in Assam jail, he had arrived in Ahmedabad only on Tuesday, 3 May.
The law about convicted political leaders
As per the Section 8 (3) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, “A person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years [other than any offence referred to in the Act shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release.” As Mevani got sentenced to only for three months, no such restrictions will be imposed on him.
