Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that he is unaware of Jignesh Mevani, who has been arrested from Ahmedabad and brought to Guwahati for alleged offensive tweets about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I don’t know. Who is he?” the Chief Minister asked when reporters sought his reaction on Mevani’s arrest by Assam Police on Wednesday.
“I’m not aware of the specifics,” he said, “Who will do vendetta politics when I don’t know him?” Sarma added that Mevani has legal aid to defend himself. Congress has claimed a ‘conspiracy’ in Mevani’s arrest.
Party’s Assam unit chief Bhupen Borah claimed no details had been provided of the FIR based on which Mevani was arrested. He pointed out that Mevani is a vocal critic of the BJP and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological mentor).’
A team from Assam Police arrested the Dalit leader and independent lawmaker at 11.30 pm on Wednesday from Palanpur town in Gujarat after an FIR with various charges, including criminal conspiracy, was filed in Assam’s Kokrajhar district.
He was flown to Guwahati on Thursday and produced in the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court at Kokrajhar in lower Assam.Â
