Gandhinagar Police’s Local Crime Branch picked up two Vishwa Hindu Parishad senior functionaries on Monday evening from a place near Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP)’s Gujarat region headquarter located in Ahmedabad’s Paldi area.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s North Gujarat region Joint Secretory Ashwinbhai Govindbhai Patel and Secretory-Organization(Sangathan Mantri) Devjibhai Rawat were picked up by Gandhinagar Police’s Local Crime Branch(LCB) on Monday evening. Later on Tuesday, Devjibhai was released after being questioned about sending offending and defamatory SMSes against Narendra Modi and his government but Ashwinbhai was kept in Police custody and was not released.

According to primary information available, Police has filed sedition case against Ashwin Govindbhai Patel for allegedly circulating several offending defamatory and provocative SMSes against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the state government lead by Narendra Modi established by law. According to Gandhinagar Local Crime Branch Police Inspector P.P.Bhatt, VHP joint secretary Ashwin Patel also triggered SMSes to create social tensions between communities in the state since last three months in post bomb blasts situation from his mobile.

According to information available from Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ahmedabad office, both Devjibhai and Ashwinbhai were detained and taken to Gandhinagar’s Sector 28 Police station on Monday evening and were questioned about SMSes against the state government and Chief Minister allegedly circulated by their mobile sim cards. However they denied the charges. On Tuesday, Police released Devjibhai at around 2.00 pm but didn’t release Ashwinbhai and filed complain against him.

Before Devjibhai returned to VHP office after he was released from Police custody, VHP had no idea about his and Ashwinbhai’s whereabouts. Unaware about both of them were picked up by Police, VHP’s international General Secretory Praveen Togadia even had told press reporters in Delhi earlier on Tuesday that they were abducted after they left VHP office on Monday evening.

Meanwhile talking to reporters at Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Gujarat headquarter after his release from Police detention Devjibhai Rawat said “Policemen talked to us in offending language. They were asking us about illegal and offending SMSes.”

While talking to reporters Vishwa Hindu Parishad Gujarat’s General Secretory Ranchhodbhai Bharwad said “Both Ashwinbhai and Devjibhai are responsible workers of VHP. They are with VHP for last 20 years. If Police wanted to question them, Police could contact VHP or could initiate actions in legal terms. Both our senior workers were almost abducted by Police after they received a telephone call on Monday and were told to collect some CDs and literary books from a school near VHP office. Both went missing since Monday evening and they could not be contacted or traced till today afternoon when Devjibhai was released. This is a clear case of human rights violation and we would approach the Human Rights Commission and would also take legal steps against the police and the government.”

Meanwhile sources told DeshGujarat that Ashwin Patel’s house in Ahmedabad’s Ranip area was also searched by the Police in connection with SMS case.