A sessions court in Ahmedabad framed charges against Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Convenor Hardik Patel along with his aides and co-accused Dinesh Bambhaniya and Chirag Patel in the sedition case over the Patidar quota agitation in 2015. Bambhaniya was arrested early morning after a non-bailable warrant was issued by court.
The court framed the charges under Sections 124(A) (sedition) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy). The trio have pleaded not guilty and are out on bail.
The Ahmedabad Crime Branch had registered the case against Patel and his associates for allegedly instigating violence ‘with the intention of dislodging the government’ during the Patidar quota agitation in August 2015. Fourteen Patidars had lost their lives in the violence.
Hardik, who is out on bail in the case, had moved the high court in April this year after the lower court rejected his discharge application. The sessions court had accepted the prosecution's argument that there was evidence against him in the form of speeches, conversations and forensic records.
This is the second sedition case filed against Hardik Patel. Hardik was jailed for nine months in October 2015; he was later exiled from Gujarat for another six months .
Bhambhaniya, A Regular Absentee
On Tuesday morning, Dinesh Bhambhaniya was arrested by the cyber cell of Ahmedabad Crime Branch and brought to the court. Bhambhaniya was arrested after he failed to appear before the court after receiving repeated summons.
On 2 November, when the court was hearing the matter, Hardik Patel and Chirag Patel were present, but Bhambhaniya wasn’t. Based on the public prosecutor’s appeal a non-bailable warrant was issued by the court against Bhambaniya.
Hardik Patel and Chirag Patel also attended the hearing with their lawyers on Tuesday. In the court, the trio were handed the 18-page charge sheet filed by the crime branch. The process of framing charges were deferred for a substantial period and now it has been initiated.
Hardik Likens Police Action to 'Jallianwala Bagh' Episode
On Monday, 19 November, Hardik Patel deposed as a witness in a private complaint filed in a metropolitan court against the police action on the agitators at the GMDC Ground in Ahmedabd on 25 August 2015.
In his deposition before Metropolitan Magistrate NP Radia, the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader drew similarities between police action and the ‘Jallianwala Bagh’ massacre during British rule.
The court had earlier ordered an inquiry into the August, 2015 lathicharge on the Patidar community agitators under section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on a complaint filed by one Haresh Mehta.
The complainant has accused the then Ahmedabad police commissioner Shivanand Jha, Vastrapur inspector M S Shaikh, assistant commissioner of police J M Patel, additional commissioner of police R R Bhagat, among other police officials, of resorting to “unnecessary and illegal action”.
“Around 8 pm, there were around 2,000 people at the ground. What happened around that time (the police lathicharge) was no less than the Jallianwala Bagh incident,” Patel said. An environment of fear was created even as the police began lathi-charging the young protesters and abusing them, he claimed.
(With inputs from PTI)
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