An FIR has been registered against Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and seven others for allegedly obstructing a police inspector, creating a commotion inside a police station and trying to stoke tensions between communities during campaigning for the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation elections, according to the FIR.
The case was registered on Sunday, the day voting was held for the civic polls. Police said no one had been arrested so far.
The incident is linked to questioning of Congress candidate Yunus Parmar after a complaint that he and his associates had threatened a BJP campaigner.
According to the complaint filed by Police Inspector AM Desai, BJP candidate’s campaigner Bhavesh Bhavsar was allegedly threatened by Parmar and his associates at Sanjari Park in Pethapur on October 8.
They allegedly warned Bhavsar against campaigning or entering the area and threatened him with dire consequences. The FIR states that a written complaint was later submitted to Pethapur police station against Parmar and some unidentified associates.
Desai said that while he was questioning Parmar in connection with the complaint as part of his official duty, Mevani and the other accused allegedly formed an unlawful assembly and entered the writer’s room of the police station.
They allegedly stopped Desai from carrying out his lawful duty, used abusive language, created a commotion and forcibly prevented Parmar’s statement from being recorded, the complaint said.
The FIR also alleged that the accused later sat outside the police station with other supporters and raised slogans referring to the Thakor community.
According to the complaint, these actions were aimed at provoking people against the police and defaming the force, disturbing public peace and creating tensions between communities.
It further alleged that the accused recorded the incident on a mobile phone and circulated the footage on social media to generate or promote enmity between different communities, and that their actions violated a notification issued by the Additional District Magistrate, Gandhinagar.
Mevani and the seven others were booked for unlawful assembly, rioting, obstruction of a public servant, criminal intimidation and intentional insult intended to provoke a breach of peace.
Polling for 11 wards of the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation concluded on Sunday.
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