Cong continues stir over Mevani's arrest; AIUDF MLAs call on Guj legislator

The Congress on Saturday continued its protest outside Kokrajhar Police Station here, where Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was being held for his purported Tweet against the prime minister.

A delegation of the AIUDF, another opposition party of Assam, also visited Mevani at the police station on the last day of his three-day police remand.

Mevani, an Independent MLA supported by the Congress, was apprehended by the Assam Police from Palanpur town in Gujarat on Wednesday night after a First Information Report (FIR) under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act was filed in Kokrajhar over the tweet.

According to the FIR, he had purportedly posted a tweet, claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi "considered Godse as God".

The legislator was flown to Guwahati from Gujarat on Thursday morning and then taken to Kokrajhar by road, where he was produced at the chief judicial magistrate's court, which remanded him in three days' police custody.

Two Congress MLAs, Bharat Narah and Wazed Ali Choudhury, led a sit-in here organised by the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress.

On Friday, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) working president and MLA Jakir Hussain Sikdar had steered the protest.

An APCC release said the state party chief Bhupen Borah, three MLAs and members of its legal cell would leave for Kokrajhar on Sunday morning as Mevani would be produced in the court again at the end of his police remand.

The release added that the party had been lending all assistance to Mevani to ensure that he was represented by the best lawyers.

During the day, two AIUDF legislators Karimuddin Barbhuyan and Ashraful Hussain met Mevani at the police station.

Talking to reporters here later, Barbhuyan said, "We enquired about his health. Mevani told us that he wasn't facing any problem and that everyone was behaving properly with him. The food, he said, was okay.

"We will depute our lawyers, too, to ensure that he gets bail," the AIUDF leader added.

CPI(M) legislator Manoranjan Talukdar and Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi had also called on Mevani on Friday.