The 22-year-old convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Hardik Patel received a setback on Tuesday as a court of principal district and sessions judge of Surat rejected his bail plea in a sedition case.
Patel has been is in jail since October last year under the charges of sedition and alleged role in instigating his supporter to kill policeman instead of thinking of committing suicide. The case was lodged by the crime branch in Amroli police station.
The Crime Branch of Surat police had in early January also filed a 370-page charge-sheet in the case. The same court had earlier rejected the bail plea of the other two accused in the case -Chirag Patel and Vipul Desai.
Earlier on March 8, another court in Ahmedabad had rejected his bail plea in yet another case of sedition filed by Ahmedabad crime branch against him and five others for their role in the quota stir turning violent.
Meanwhile, a day after the Sessions court served notice to the lajpore jail authorities, asking them why the letters written by Hardik were not allowed to be sent outside, the jail authorities have moved court with a request to transfer him to any other prison.
A petition to this effect was filed by deputy jail superintendent V D Patil in the court of principal district and session judge Geetaben Gopi in this regard. Jail superintendent R M Pandey said that they had initiated the petition mainly because of “his ill behaviour”.
The petition has mentioned five points as a ground for the transfer of PAAS leader to another jail, including alleged misbehaviour by Hardik with the jail authorities and the doctor, the recovery of mobile equipment and Rs 1000 currency note from his barrack and his baseless allegations against the jail
authorities.