Police registers case against Cong leader in Gujarat who urged farmers to burn buses and public property

Patan:

A case under section 153 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been lodged against Patan Taluka Congress president Ashwin Patel for his provocative speech here inciting farmers in Gujarat to burn government buses and other public properties and also block roads by chopping off trees.

PI of the B-division police station in Patan where the case has been filed, V P Parmar today said that the case has been lodged on the complaint of the police officer who was on duty at the place of occurrence near irrigation office in the city.

Notably section 153 pertains to wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot. If the offence of rioting be committed in consequence of such provocation, the accused would be punished with imprisonment of either de­scription for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both; and if the offence of rioting be not committed, with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.

Notably the video of the incident had gone viral and was widely condemned. Patel while addressing a meeting reportedly organized by youth wing of the party here to protest the government decision to stop supply of Narmada water for agri purposes coming season had made highly provocative statements.

Patel can be seen in the video of the event urging the farmers to burn the buses and torch other public properties to make the ‘deaf and dumb’ government aware of the problems of the farmers. He also urged them to send sms and phone calls to farmers overnight to create havoc before the system awakes next morning. His act was among others also condemned by Congress state president Bharatsinh Solanki.

DeshGujarat