After couple of months of Una Dalit agitation, in a dramatic twist in the event of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Gujarat for his birthday, Una Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani was first detained on Friday evening and then released after midnight.
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Deepan Bhadran, the deputy commissioner of police at the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) told the Indian Express that Mevani “was detained following a specific input”.
However, soon after he was released, he was put under house arrest until Saturday morning.
Mevani’s cousin Viral, who had gone to the airport to receive him, told The Indian Express that policemen in plainclothes directed Mevani to sit in their auto. Viral Mewani, cousin of Jignesh Mewani, told Mirror that police came in plain clothes and picked him up.
Comparing the alleged murder of Ayyub by cow vigilantes with the Dadri incident, Mevani said that dalit community members will stand with Muslims battle right-wing forces. “Fearing that he might create some problem at felicitation event organised for Modi near airport, he was detained”.
Mevani has already announced to launch a Rail Roko Andolan from October 1 in Maninagar area of Ahmedabad as part of the Dalit agitation in Gujarat.
The Gujarat police also arrested Reshma Patel, leader of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), Scroll reported.
Also detained along with Mevani were almost 400 Patel agitation activists led by Reshma Patel of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS).
PM Modi landed in Gujarat just hours before 29-year-old Mohammad Ayyub succumbed to a brutal thrashing at the hands of so-called gau rakshaks on 16 September.
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According to Scroll, J.K. Bhatt, the joint commissioner of police of the city crime branch denied having any information on the detainees, “I am not aware of names and number of people detained”.
