Chidambaram takes a swipe at Assam CM over ‘false case’ against Mevani

A court in Assam on Friday granted bail to the independent Gujarat MLA.

Jignesh Mevani. File photo

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Saturday, April 30, 2022, took a swipe at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over a court in Assam pulling up the State police for lodging a "false FIR" against Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, asking whether the CM will entrust the CBI to find out who was the "insane person" who caused the FIR to be registered.

Granting bail to Mr. Mevani in a case related to the alleged "assault" of a woman police officer, a court in Assam's Barpeta district on Friday pulled up the state police for lodging the "false FIR".

Hearing the bail petition, Barpeta District and Sessions Judge Aparesh Chakraborty also urged the Gauhati High Court to direct the State police force to "reform itself", referring to the slew of police encounters over the last one year.

Reacting to the development, Mr. Chidambaram said the court found that no sane person could have intended to outrage the modesty of a lady police officer in the presence of two male police officers and held that the FIR had no merit.

The court found that there is no evidence to hold that Mr. Mevani was an insane person, the former union home minister said in a series of tweets.  If Mr Mevani was not insane and yet a false FIR was registered against him, there must be someone who was insane?" he said.

"Will the CM of Assam entrust the case to the CBI to find out who was the insane person who caused the FIR to be registered against Mr. Mevani?" Mr. Chidambaram asked.

Mr. Mevani was granted bail on a Personal Recognisance (PR) bond of ₹1,000 in the case filed at the Barpeta Road police station.

He was arrested in this case on Monday for allegedly "assaulting" the woman police officer while he was being brought by a police posse from Guwahati to Kokrajhar.

Mr. Mevani, a Congress-backed Independent MLA, was picked up by a posse from the Assam Police last week from Gujarat and arrested for a purported tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.   

After being released on bail in that case on Monday, he was rearrested in the case related to the assault of the woman police officer who was part of the police party which accompanied him to Korkrajhar, a complaint about which was registered in Barpeta.