NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JAN 18
Hardik Patel, leader of the Patidar quota agitation and Congress leader, was arrested on Saturday night after a local court here issued non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him in a sedition case lodged by the crime branch of Ahmedabd police for the widespread violence that erupted after his Patidar quota rally here on the GMDC ground on August 25, 2015.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Rajdipsinh Zala (cyber crime) said that Hardik was arrested from near Hansalpur crossing in his home-taluka of Viramgam in Ahmedabad district.
“We have arrested Haridk Patel from near Viramgam after the court issued a non-bailable warrant against him. We will produce him before the court tomorrow,” Zala said.
He has been kept in police custody in crime branch premises where he would spend the night and would be produced at the residence of the judge on Sunday who would take the next course of action.
Patel had been previously arrested in connection with a sedition case filed by the local Crime Branch after violence broke out during a rally by the Patel community in Ahmedabad on August 25, 2015.
The quota leader was granted bail in July, 2016, and the court had, in November 2018, framed charges against him and other accused in the case.
On Saturday, Additional Sessions Judge B.G. Ganatra issued an arrest warrant against Patel, after accepting the government’s plea against an exemption application moved by the Patidar leader’s lawyer.
The prosecution told the court the accused intended to delay the trial by seeking regular exemption from appearance.
The court also observed that Patel, who has to be cross-examined in the case, was flouting bail conditions by not remaining present regularly to delay trial.
Government counsel Sudhir Brahmbhatt said that he pleaded that Hardik was granted bail in the case by the Gujarat High court on the condition that he would cooperate during the trial but he was not appearing before the trial court. He was also not cooperating in the speedy hearing of the case.
He said that the court rejected his plea for exemption from personal appearance and issued NBW and posted January 24 as the next date of the hearing.
Brahmbhatt had said that with the issuance of the NBW, Hardik could be arrested or his bail could also be cancelled. The court might also give him relief by cancelling the warrant if he surrenders before it.
Notably, two of the other accused of the sensational case Chirag Patel and Dinesh Bambhaniya appeared before the court on Saturday.
Hardik was booked in another sedition case in Surat for his alleged provocative suggestion to his aides to kill policemen and he was also on bail in that matter. He was jailed in these cases and had also spent six months outside Gujarat as part of his bail condition.
Several government run buses, police stations were torched and other public property including railway tracks damaged during the violence that had erupted after the rally in Ahmedabad. The crime branch of the city police in its charge sheet alleged that Hardik and his aides had spread the violence under a conspiracy.
Patel had joined the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
