Mevani,Kanhaiya detained for taking out march without permission

Dalit agitation spearhead Jignesh Mevani, student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and 15 others were detained on Wednesday for taking out 'Freedom March' allegedly without permission on the first anniversary of Una flogging incident, the police said.

Mevani, who is the convener of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, had invited Kumar to take part in the 'Azadi Kooch' (Freedom March) in Mehsana.

A number of Dalit activists gathered at Somnath Chowk in Mehsana before embarking on the march towards Banaskantha district on Wednesday afternoon, the police said.

The Mehsana district authorities had cancelled the permission granted earlier to Mevani for taking out the march.

"We have detained 17 persons from Fatehpura circle. Later, an FIR was registered under IPC section 143 against them for being a part of an illegal assembly.

"We did not arrest them. They were let go afterwards," an official of the Mehsana 'A' division police station, where the FIR has been lodged, said.

As per the schedule, 'Freedom March' will end at Dhanera town of Banaskantha district of north Gujarat after one week.

The key agenda of this march is to mount pressure on the Gujarat government to allocate agricultural land to Dalits, so that they can start a new life with dignity, Mevani had announced last month.

After being released, co-convener of the manch, Kaushik Parmar, who is also named in the FIR, announced that the march will continue as they have the permission to enter Unjha, their next destination. -- PTI