The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court on Friday sentenced Gujarat Congress working president, MLA and a prominent Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani and 18 others to six months simple imprisonment in a 2016 case of unlawful assembly and road blockade while protesting.
In 2016, Mevani and others had staged an agitation demanding that a new building of Department of Law of Gujarat University be named after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. During the protest, he and his associates had blocked a road. The case was registered against Mevani and 19 others at the University police station.
The First Information Report was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 143 (unlawful assembly) and 147 (rioting) as well as sections of the Gujarat Police Act.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate P.N. Goswami, who also imposed a fine on Mevani and others, suspended their sentence till October 17 to enable them to file appeals challenging their sentences. One of the accused died during the pendency of the case.
This is a second case in which Mr. Mevani has been sentenced in a case related to the protests. Earlier, a Mehsana Court had convicted him in a case related to protests that led to blockade of a train.
