The Dalit leader and the Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and the 18 others of his associates were sentenced to Six months of imprisonment by the metropolitan court in Ahmedabad on Friday.
The arrest was in connection with an FIR registered for protesting to name a building in Gujarat University’s law department after Dr B R Ambedkar.
The judgement was pronounced by the Additional chief judicial magistrate P N Goswami who held Mevani and others guilty of charges that included rioting, and unlawful assembly among others.
The MLA and his associates were sentenced by the court for 6 months jail and a fine of Rs 700 each. The court had given one month time to the convicts for challenging the judgement.The convicts include Rakesh Maheriya, Subodh Parmar, and Dixit Parmar.
An MLA from Vadgam, Jignesh Mevani was likely to join Congress before the upcoming Assembly elections.
Jignesh Mevani in a tone of anger said After the judgement, Mevani reacted, “Gujarat government released all rapists from jail, garlanded them and said that their conduct was very good.
He also cited another example of C R Paatil, the Gujarat BJP president, who has nearly 108 cases against him but convicted in none.
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.”
Gujarat University police station in Ahmedabad filed a case against Mevani and 19 others associated with Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, an organisation that Mevani heads.
The reason was that he held agitation under the Gujarat University police station area demanding the under-construction building of the law department be named after Ambedkar.
The roads were blocked by the protesters which when interrupted by police.The protestors in retaliation led by Mevani started undressing in protest. The police have booked them for rioting, and unlawful assembly among other charges.