Dalit right activist and independent MLA from Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani, reportedly received a death threat on Thursday. Mevani, who was in Rajasthan, had received a similar threat on Wednesday.
While Mevani could not be reached for his comments, Prakash Dharwa, from his team, told THE WEEK that a phone call came on the number that is being handled by Kaushik Parmar of the team. Parmar had received the phone from the same number on Wednesday. The caller identified himself as Rajvir Mishra.
On Wednesday, Parmar claimed that before receiving a call from India number, he had twice received a call from an international number and the caller had identified himself as Ravi Pujari. The line, he said, was not clear and the calls got disconnected.
Parmar held that Mishra threatened to kill Mevani. Dharwa said that Parmar has been operating Mevani's mobile number, which the latter was using before becoming MLA.
Members of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch had demanded to provide proper security to Mevani. They have also filed a police complaint along with the audio recording of the phone call and have given a memorandum to the collector of Palanpur. Dharwa said that they would sit on dharna if action is not initiated in next couple of days.
The team members would also submit a memorandum to local authorities in Vadgam on Friday.
Mevani has been a vociferous critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies. He is also one of the persons, who had taken a lead in organising a march from Ahmedabad to Una after the infamous flogging incident of five Dalit men.