Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani on Wednesday said that he is under house arrest and not allowed to participate in a rally seeking justice for the 19-year-old Hathras woman.
“I’m detained at Ahmedabad and not allowed to move out of my room,” he tweeted.
Mevani told The Quint that he was not allowed to leave the Circuit House in Ahmedabad, where he was staying. “We thought since we don’t have permission, we would go there and anyway would get detained. But they did not even let me leave the Circuit House,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
Gujarat Police, meanwhile, told The Quint that Mevani was prevented from going to the rally because the organisers did not have the permission to hold it.
“Permission was not given to the organisers of the rally. He was about to go for the rally. So, he has been kept under surveillance at the Circuit House,” Ahmedabad Sector 2 DCP Gautam Parmar was quoted as saying by The Quint.
Mevani, Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda and working state president Hardik Patel were detained by the Gujarat Police ahead of the rally in Ahmedabad.
Patel tweeted that he was detained two hours ahead of the rally and has now been released. He had earlier said that the march is completely non-political and organised by various voluntary organisations, according to The Indian Express.
Protests have erupted in various parts of the country over the death and alleged forced cremation of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras last week.
Mevani also took part in a protest at Jantar Mantar on 2 October and told India Today that “Uttar Pradesh has become an absolute jungle raj”.