A day after issue of warrant, Hardik surrenders in court, gets conditional bail, warned to remain present during hearings

Mahesana:

PAAS leader Hardik Patel and Sardar Patel Group president Lalji Patel today surrendered in a local court in Visnagar town of Mahesana district in North Gujarat which had yesterday issued non-bailable warrant against them and five other accused in the case related to violence and arson in the town in July 2015 during which the office of local BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel was also attacked.

The court of judge V P Agrawal granted bail to all the seven accused including Hardik and Lalji on a surety of Rs 5000 for each and also warned them to remain present regularly during the hearing of the case. The court fixed November 15 as the next date of hearing.

There were a total 17 accused in the case.

The court had issued the warrant as Hardik, Lalji and other five failed to appear during the hearing on last few dates without any ‘satisfactory reason’. Yesterday during the hearing, the court rejected the plea of Hardik and Lalji for giving them relief from personal appearance owing to their being busy.

If Hardik and other accused would not have surrendered before the court the police could have arrested them for production in the court as per procedure.

On July 23, during a rally demanding OBC quota for Patidar community, the office of BJP MLA Patel was attacked and some vehicle parked outside including a car were torched. Initially, seven persons including Hardik were made accused in the case while others were included in the charge-sheet after investigation.

Gujarat High Court had granted regular bail to Hardik in this case on July 11 last year.

Hardik today could not remain present in another court in Ahmedabad in a case of sedition against him owing to his coming to Visnagar court in the wake of NBW. The PAAS leader is facing a number of cases including two sedition cases for his role in violence during his allegedly motivated quota stir.

Desh Gujarat