Arup Kumar Dey is an elected member to Bodoland Territorial Council
"Negative" online posts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi hurt BJP workers and people "should be careful" when tweeting about him, the Assam BJP leader on whose complaint Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was arrested has told NDTV.
Arup Kumar Dey, a young BJP leader, is an elected member to Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and an executive member of the council government in charge of the health and family welfare portfolio.
Mr Mevani, a Dalit activist and legislator from Vadgam, was arrested from Gujarat by Assam police officers and brought to Kokrajhar in a case filed over an online post about the Prime Minister. On Friday, a local court remanded him in police custody for three days.
Mr Mewani has been charged with criminal conspiracy, offence related to place of worship, outraging religious feelings, and provocation that might lead to breach of peace.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Dey said he had been following Mr Mevani's tweets for a long time. "He has been trying to divide people by his posts and always speaks negatively about Prime Minister Modi. We are lucky to have Modiji as our Prime Minister and Mevani is trying to link his name with the recent (incidents of) violence. Is Prime Minister Modi responsible for that? He says Godse is Prime Minister Modi's God, what proof does he have?"
"We are BJP workers and we won't tolerate such misleading and conspiring posts and tweets about Prime Minister Modi ji," Mr Dey said.
The BJP leader said they want to send out a message through the police complaint against Mr Mevani.
"Through this complaint, we want to send a message to others, particularly public representatives, that they should be careful while tweeting about Prime Minister Modi. We got the FIR registered, got strong sections invoked since Mevani wanted to provoke a particular community. His tweet indicated that he was blaming the Prime Minister for the recent Gujarat violence. Anyone can appeal to the Prime Minister to urge for peace, but can't blame a Prime Minister for violence in any state," he added.
Mr Dey stressed that his complaint has "nothing to do with politics" or the upcoming Gujarat elections.
"The prompt arrest of Mevani by Assam Police shows that the police here are extremely active under the rule of dynamic Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. So if any tweet has the potential to create communal disharmony, we will take action this way," he added.