Hardik Patel is taken to be produced in an Ahmedabad court yesterday.
IANS
Ahmedabad
Firebrand leader Hardik Patel was yesterday rearrested here on sedition charges after a court rejected a plea for his further remand by the Surat police. The Gujarat High Court meanwhile withheld till Tuesday its verdict on a petition challenging allegations against him.
A Surat court had on Monday remanded Hardik Patel in police custody till yesterday evening, while yet another charge-sheet was filed against him and five supporters in Ahmedabad including charges of sedition and conspiring to overthrow a duly elected government.
The petition in the high court following his arrest in Surat was filed by his father Bharat Patel, a BJP worker. Bharat Patel challenged his son’s arrest on October 19 on sedition charges for encouraging youngsters from the Patel community to kill a policeman or two instead of thinking of committing suicide.
Hardik Patel had on October 3 in a conversation with a villager in Surat commented: “If you have so much courage, go kill a policeman or two instead of committing suicide. Patels never commit suicide.”
After a TV channel aired his remarks, it was uploaded on the social network, sparking off a controversy.
Hardik Patel was then slapped with a sedition charge for his remarks. This was contested by his advocate B M Mangukia in the Gujarat High Court.
While putting off the hearing till yesterday, the high court had on Wednesday sought the government’s explanation as to how his remarks could be termed as seditious.
In Surat, the police sought a further remand of Hardik Patel for five days. However, the metropolitan court rejected the police petition.
The Ahmedabad Crime Branch had meanwhile already reached Surat to arrest and take him to Ahmedabad.
Hardik Patel is among six people facing sedition charges in Ahmedabad. His three close aides were produced before a court on Thursday evening on the same charges - of conspiring to dislodge an elected government.
The three aides are Chirag Patel, Dinesh Bamania and Ketan Patel. Two others, Alpesh Kathiria from Surat and Amrish Patel from Ahmedabad, are on the run.
Chirag Patel and Bamania were whisked away in a dramatic fashion from outside the high court on the same day Hardik Patel’s father challenged the charges against him.
Ketan Patel was later picked up from Waghai in south Gujarat. All three were remanded to police custody till 3.30pm on October 29.
Hardik Patel will be produced before an Ahmedabad court and the police are likely to seek his remand, along with the others.
