Gandhinagar

Rejecting the alleged ‘secret detention’ claim of the ‘missing’ Patidar Anamat Aandolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel, who reportedly appeared dramatically today after his mysterious disappearance from Tainpur in Aravalli district yesterday, Gujarat Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. Rajnikant Patel said that his claims were baseless and lacking in facts.

Talking to newsmen here today Mr. Patel said there was no truth in the said claims of the PAAS leader who had held a meeting in Tainpur yesterday without permission and later fled to evade arrest.

‘We won’t allow any one to destroy the peaceful environment of the state and disturb the law and order. The government would take strong action against those who violate the law to create unrest in the state. Maintaining the law and order is our priority. We will maintain the peace at all costs,’ the minister, whose house in Mahesana district was also torched during the state wide violent protests of the supporters of the outfit in the night of August 25 following the first arrest of Hardik Patel the same evening, said.

To a query Mr. Patel said that the police would arrest Hardik as soon as his exact location was traced.

Earlier, Hardik in a telephonic conversation with a local channel had claimed that he was forcefully kept inside his vehicle for several hours and was later dropped somewhere near Hadvad in Surendranagar district. He said that the plain clothed people apparently policemen had threatened him to give up his pro-reservation agitation.

Meanwhile sources in the home department said that police was keeping a close watch on Hardik and he would be arrested as soon as he tried to hold a press conference or meeting.

Earlier the Gandhinagar range IG Hansmukh Patel had claimed that the PAAS leader would be produced before the high court at the earliest after his arrest in the wake of the habeas corpus writ petition filed in the court by advocate B M Mangukiya after mid night.

Mangukiya has claimed to have received a phone call and SMS message from Hardik today and was going to meet him.

– DeshGujarat