Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani on Friday said that he was suspended from the state Assembly for a day for demanding the arrest of a police officer in connection with a Dalit Right to Information activist’s killing earlier in March.
The activist, 50-year-old Amrabhai Boricha, was reportedly beaten to death in a village in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district by 50 members of the upper caste Kshatriya community on March 2. The attack allegedly took place in the presence of a sub-inspector. The activist had been given police protection after he received death threats.
Mevani said in a tweet that it had been 17 days since the chargesheet was filed. “Who is the Vijay Rupani government defending?” he asked.
Mevani displayed a poster with the activist’s photo during the Assembly session on Friday, PTI reported. After his mic was turned off, he reportedly began shouting and asking why the police officer had not been arrested yet.
The MLA also asked the government to clarify whether the sub-inspector was related to Gujarat Home Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja.
Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi ordered Mevani to take his seat instead of protesting in the Assembly, according to PTI. After Mevani refused to sit down, the speaker suspended him for indiscipline.
Mevani had been suspended from the Assembly for the same reason on Thursday too. “I will continue our fight from outside the Assembly till the PSI [police sub-inspector] is arrested!” he had tweeted. “We will not negotiate in our fight for justice.”
On Thursday, 50 MLAs of the Gujarat Congress had also walked out of the Assembly after a debate with BJP leaders on the law and order situation in the state, according to PTI.
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