A metropolitan court in Gujarat has issued a non- bailable warrant against Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani for failing to appear for the hearing in a case against him for stopping a Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express during a protest in January.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate RS Langa issued non-bailable warrants against Mevani and 12 other people yesterday after they failed to appear before the court.
On 11 January, Mevani and his supporters were arrested for blocking the Rajdhani Express at the Ahmedabad railway station for several minutes as part of a 'rail roko' protest against the Vibrant Gujarat Summit.
They were booked under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and relevant sections of the Indian Railway Act. A chargesheet was also filed in the case.
The magistrate on Tuesday, 28 November, refused to consider the exemption application filed by Mevani's lawyer Samshad Pathan, who pleaded that his client was busy filing nomination forms as an independent candidate from the Vadagam Assembly seat.
This was the second consecutive time Mevani had failed to appear before the court.
Mevani yesterday announced that he would contest the Gujarat Assembly election from Vadagam in Banaskantha district as an independent. The main opposition party, Congress, is supporting him indirectly by choosing not to field a candidate there.
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