‘Dhotiya kand’: 29 yrs on, Gujarat court allows withdrawal of case against BJP ex-MP Amritlal Patel

Ahmedabad, Aug 22 (PTI) A sessions court here has allowed a plea by the prosecution to withdraw a 29-year-old case involving two former BJP MPs, who were accused of pulling the ‘dhoti’ of an MLA at a public event.

The incident, widely known as 'dhotiya kand', took place in May 1996 after a public rally, where the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had addressed a gathering of BJP leaders.

The police had then booked former Union minister Amritlal Patel, now 95, and one Mangaldas Patel, who is no more, under Indian Penal Code section 307 (attempt to murder).

As per the case papers, the two accused and many others pulled down the dhoti of BJP MLA Atmaram Patel, a minister in the then Shankarsinh Vaghela government. Atmaram Patel later joined Congress and became a member of the 13th Lok Sabha from Mehsana.

The accused were upset that Atmaram, who represented the Vijapur assembly constituency, had sided with Shankersinh Vaghela when he rebelled and floated his own party in 1996 after breaking away from the BJP.

Amritlal was one of the first BJP MPs in the country. He represented Mehsana constituency five times between 1984 and 1999, and was a minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers in the Vajpayee government. Before that, he had also served as an MLA.

Victim Atmaram defeated Amritlal in Mehsana in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.

Additional Sessions Judge Hemang Kumar Pandya on Thursday allowed the prosecution’s plea to withdraw the case after observing that the matter involved internal conflicts within a political party.

The judge noted that the other accused, Mangaldas Patel, was also a BJP leader who died during the course of the trial, resulting in the case against him being abated. Victim Atmaram Patel also passed away during the pendency of the trial in 2002.

“The case is related to internal conflict of a political party and the permission sought to withdraw this case in the larger interest of the society appears to be bona fide intention of the prosecution. And the public prosecutor seems to have considered the matter of withdrawal of prosecution,” the court said in its order on Thursday.

Therefore, permission as sought in the application for withdrawal of the prosecution is granted, the court said.

“Reading the chargesheet of this case, it is not stated that the accused number one Amritlal Patel attacked the victim Atmaram Patel,” the court added. PTI KA PD NR