Gujarat court acquits Jignesh Mevani, six others in 2016 unlawful assembly rioting case

Mevani won the December 2022 assembly election from the Vadgam seat as a Congress candidate and is a working president of the party's state unit.

Ahmedabad: A metropolitan court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday acquitted Congress MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and six other activists in a case of unlawful assembly registered during a protest for the rights of sanitation workers in the city back in 2016.

The court granted them relief on the grounds of benefit of doubt as the prosecution couldn't prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate P N Goswami pronounced the judgment acquitting Mevani and six others including Manabhai Pateliya, Ramesh Bariya, Mukesh Patel, Mahesh Narsinhbhai and Darshankumar Pithadiya.

In 2016, Navrangpura police had booked Mevani and others for taking out protest rallies in absence of police permission and damaging public properties.

Mevani, then an activist, had joined the 36-day agitation by the sanitation workers protesting against Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's decision to employ a new agency for hiring new workers.

Mevani and others were booked for unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt to public servants, among other charges.