Ahmedabad:

PAAS leader Hardik Patel today challenged in the Gujarat High Court the decision of a local court here which on February 21 had rejected his discharge petition in the sedition case filed against him by the Ahmedabad crime branch in October 2015.

One of the counsels of Hardik, Rafik Lokhandwala said that the court issued notice to the state government. The matter was likely to come up for hearing next month.

To a query that the local court of ADJ of sessions court here, Dilip Mahida who had rejected the discharge petition of the PAAS leader, had also issued a bailable warrant against him for non-appearance before it on last date of April 4 and might initiate the procedure of charge-framing on April 25, the next date of hearing, Lokhandwala said that the charge can’t be framed till the matter was in the high court.

The local court while rejecting the petition had not accepted the arguments of Lokhandwala that there was no evidence against Hardik. He was not involved in any criminal conspiracy or incited anyone for violence.The violence after rally in GMDC ground in Ahmedabad on August 25, 2015 was a result of police action on PAAS leaders.

Hardik in September last year had filed the discharge petition in the lower court seeking discharge in the sedition case on the ground that there was no evidence against him for framing of charges. He has been accused of inciting violence with the intention to dislodge the government after a rally addressed by him turned violent.

Special Prosecutor H M Dhruv during his final argument in the case had said that the Gujarat HC had earlier rejected Hardik’s quashing petition and that the prosecution has enough evidence to frame charges against him.

The crime branch had filed a charge sheet of around 2,700 pages against Hardik and three others in court. They have been charged with sedition and criminal conspiracy. If convicted, the maximum punishment for the charges is life imprisonment. The changed circumstances in the case were likely to damage Hardik’s prospects in this litigation with co-accused and former aide Ketan Patel turning an approver. He was pardoned by the court with consent from the state government. Two other co-accused Chirag Patel and Dinesh Bambhania have also fallen apart with the PAAS leader.

In the charge sheet, the police had termed the quota agitation, spearheaded by Hardik, as a “pre-planned conspiracy” that was hatched to put pressure on the state government to accept their “unconstitutional demand of quota”. The police alleged that due to such activities of the PAAS leaders, 457 FIRs relating to arson, assault and rioting were filed across Gujarat between July 7 and December 3 last year. According to the charge sheet, property worth around Rs 40 crore was damaged in the violence. It alleged that 203 policemen as well as officers were injured in the violence while constable Dilip Rathva died in Surat.

Gujarat high court had rejected the quashing petition in this case. Hardik was in jail for nine months in connection with this and another sedition case filed in Surat for his inciting his supporters to kill policemen. He was released from jail in July 2016 after conditional bail by Gujarat High Court and had to spend six months outside Gujarat as per the bail condition. A local court had also rejected his discharge plea in Surat sedition case and the matter was in charges framing stage after non-grant of relief from the high court in it.

DeshGujarat