New Delhi : Dalit leader and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani on Friday denied making inflammatory speech in Pune.
Addressing a press conference here, Mevani said, “Not even a single word of my speech was inflammatory or provocative.”
An F.I.R. was registered against Mevani and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid in Pune on Thursday under sections 153(A), 505 and 117 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The F.I.R. was registered after two complainants — Akshay Bikkad and Anand Dhond – approached police and alleged Mevani and Khalid had made “provocative” comments at an event on December 31 at an event organised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima-Koregaon.
The dalit leader alleged that the ‘false’ F.I.R. is the brainchild of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiyia Janata Party (BJP).
“Members of Sangh Parivar (RSS) and BJP made a childish attempt to tarnish my image and target me. It is an after effect of the Gujarat results and also because they have a sense of fear about 2019,” Mewani claimed.
Bhima-Koregaon violence in which a person was killed has led to protests on streets and in Parliament.
The dalit community is up in the arms over the incident.
However, the Maharashtra government has denied any dalit was killed in Bhima-Koregaon where clashes broke out between two groups on Monday during an event to mark 200 years of Bhima Koregaon battle near Pune. (ANI)