Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mewani & 12 others on Thursday were sentenced to 3-months imprisonment & a fine, under section of 143 IPC, in connection with a 2017 rally. Mevani and his associates led an ‘Azadi Kooch’ from Mehsana to Dhanera of neighbouring Banaskantha district in 2017.
Among the convicts is a woman leader of the Nationalist Congress Party. He was charged with holding a rally without permission. The Mehsana court has sentenced Mewani, NCP leaders Reshma Patel and Subodh Parmar to three months imprisonment. The case is five years old and the accused had organized an independence march rally in 2017.
It was alleged that permission was not sought for this. The court convicted the 12 on the charges. The court, headed by Additional Chief Justice JA Parmar, observed that "it is not a crime to hold a rally but to hold a rally without permission". Kaushik Parmar had sought permission from the Mehsana Executive Magistrate for a rally under the banner of the National Dalit Rights Forum, founded by Mewani. It was initially allowed. But, again, it was withdrawn.