Surat court allows Gujarat to withdraw sedition case against Hardik Patel
A court in Surat on Thursday allowed the State Government’s plea to withdraw a sedition case linked to the 2015 Patidar reservation agitation against BJP MLA Hardik Patel and three others.
The court of Principal District and Sessions Judge RA Trivedi allowed the Government’s application to withdraw the sedition case against Patel, who later joined the BJP and won the 2022 State Assembly elections, and his then aides Alpesh Kathiria, Vipul Desai and Chirag Desai.
In March this year, a sessions court in Ahmedabad had allowed the Government’s plea to withdraw another sedition case against Patel and four others related to the 2015 Patidar quota agitation.
The community had held violent protests that year seeking reservations in Government jobs and educational institutes under the OBC quota.
The sedition case was filed against Patel, then the convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), at Amroli police station here in October 2015 for his allegedly controversial remarks instigating the youth of his community to kill police personnel instead of committing suicide.
He was charged with Indian Penal Code sections 124-A (sedition), 115 (abetment of offence) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence).
The maximum sentence under the sedition charge is life imprisonment, while the minimum punishment is three years.
In 2019, Patel joined the Congress and was in 2020 appointed the party’s working president.
He joined the BJP in 2022 and the same year, won the Assembly election from the Viramgam constituency.
When Patel was briefly detained at the GMDC ground in Ahmedabad on August 25, 2015, after a mega rally, PAAS leaders were accused of deliberately spreading misleading messages among his community, claiming he was wrongfully arrested, the chargesheet had said.
Such inflammatory messages and rumours resulted in riots across Gujarat, which forced police to impose curfew in several parts after people resorted to stone pelting, arson and damaging public property for almost four days, it said.
As per the chargesheet, property worth around Rs 40 crore was damaged in the violence and 203 police personnel were injured. One constable, Dilip Rathva, died in Surat.
