Twenty three-year-old convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Hardik Patel may be arrested once again by Gujarat police in a case relatedto a meeting held at Tenpur in Aravalli district of the State.
The Police on Tuesday arrested Hardik’s close aide and PAAS leader Dinesh Bambhaniya in connection with the case. He has been charged under Section 188 of IPC (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant). Patel and other Patidar leader are agitating for over a year with a demand to get reservation for their community in Government jobs and education institution under OBC category.
In that connection PAAS had organised a meeting at Tenpur in Arvalli district on September 22, 2015.
The meeting authorities claim, was not held with legal permissions and it was the same meeting from where Patel had gone mysteriously missing and habeas corpus writ was filed in the Gujarat High Court seeking his whereabouts.
Hardik later appeared before the court, which reprimanded him for going to media instead of producing himself before the court. The police are likely to go to Udaipur, where Hardik is currently stationed, to complete the formality of arresting Hardik in the case, where over 35 persons have been arrested and released.
“About two-three months ago Gujarat government had announced that it had withdrawn over 90 per cent of cases is completely false. They have even not withdrawn cases under Section 188. Today’s arrest shows that the government has been making false claims just to gain sympathy of Patels. It seems that government wants Patels to remain entangled in police and legal formalities for long,” Hardik said in a video message circulated on social media.