Surat court allows Gujarat govt's plea to withdraw sedition case against BJP MLA Hardik Patel

Surat, Dec 18 (PTI) A court in Surat in Gujarat 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 reservation in government jobs and educational institutes under 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 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 sedition charge is life imprisonment while the minimum punishment is three years.

In 2019, Patel joined the Congress and was in 2020 appointed that party's working president. He joined the BJP in 2022 and the same year he won the state assembly election from Viramgam constituency.

His lawyer Yashwant Vala said the state government had earlier issued a notification ordering withdrawal of nearly 90 percent of cases related to the Patidar agitation, including sedition cases.

"On the basis of the said notification, the public prosecutor had filed an application before the district and sessions judge to withdraw the sedition case against Patel and three others. Principal District and Sessions Judge PD Desai allowed the government's plea to withdraw the case and acquitted Patel, Alpesh Kathiria, Vipul Desai and Chirag Desai," he said.

In its chargesheet filed in the case in 2016, the police had accused Patel and his aides of inciting Patidar youths to resort to violence as part of a pre-planned conspiracy to put pressure on the government to accept their quota demand.

Surat police had also filed an FIR against Patel under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) of IPC, but the Gujarat High Court had struck down the charge while upholding the sedition charge.

When Patel was briefly detained at 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. PTI KA PD BNM