GUWAHATI: Assam Congress MP Abdul Khaleque Wednesday demanded the immediate release of Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and a judicial inquiry into the case filed against him for alleged assault of a woman police officer in Barpeta for which he was rearrested after being granted bail in a case related to a tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said Mevani's arrest was a ''full fledged conspiracy" and expressed scepticism over the incident which had reportedly taken place when he was in police custody after being brought to Kokrajhar in Assam from Gujarat for his tweet.
''An independent judicial inquiry must be instituted into the fabricated case immediately as the police is not independent in Assam and is acting under political pressure. He should be released immediately," said Khaleque, who is an MP from Barpeta, where the alleged assault of the woman police officer took place.
He said Mevani had tweeted in Gujarat.
"Then why was a case filed in Assam? It is obvious that the Assam chief minister wants to please the prime minister. It is shameful for a chief minister to behave in such a manner''.
Khaleque claimed that he had filed a case against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma but the police did not register it despite a local court's direction to do so.
BJP, he said, has no respect for democracy and "Is all out to stifle the freedom of speech which we cannot allow at any cost".
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee will stage protests against the arrest of Mevani, who is supported by the party, in all districts of the state on Thursday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to visit the state, party spokesman Manjit Mahanta said.
APCC will hold its protest from 11 a.m to 1 p.m in the districts headquarters across the state.
Party MPs, MLAs, former MPs and MLAs, members of the Youth Congress, NSUI, Seva Dal and officials from all cells and organs of the party will participate in the protest, he added.
Mevani was remanded to police custody for five days on Tuesday in connection with the alleged assaulted of a woman officer when she was accompanying him from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar along with senior police officers.
He was been booked under IPC sections 294 (uttering obscene words in public), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assaulting a public servant in the execution of duty) and 354 (using criminal force to a woman intending to outrage her modesty).
He was first arrested on April 19 from Palanpur town in Gujarat and was brought to Kokrajhar in Assam for tweeting against the prime minister.