Gandhinagar: The seemingly mentally unstable ex-policeman Gopal Italia, who was arrested for throwing his shoe during the media briefing of Home and Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja in the Gujarat Assembly premises on March 2 and has been dismissed from his current job in the Prant office in Dhandhuka , was today produced in a court here which deferred the hearing on his bail plea till tomorrow.

Interestingly police did not seek his remand and he was sent to jail under judicial custody.

He had in January this year was also in lime-light for wrong reasons for his telephonic conversation with Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel (the audio clip of which had gone viral).
Meanwhile it has been revealed that the motorcycle used by Gopal for entering the Vidansabha premises belonged to a constable, who hails from his native village, attached with Ranip police station in Ahmedabad. The matter is being investigated even as the constable has denied any involvement in the incident.

Italia surprised everyone when he suddenly appeared in the midst of the press briefing and hit his foot-wear on the desk of the media center in the assembly premises with which microphones of the TV channels were rested for the briefing.

Jadeja had just begun to reply to a question about the killing of a Sarpanch in Amreli district (an issue on which Congress MLA’s had walked out of the house today), when frenzied Italia came forward and shocked the minister for a while by hitting the desk with shoe and shouting Darubandi hai- hai ( downwith prohibition law).

As the security guards and policemen nabbed him, he was heard shouting slogans like Darubandhi hai hai, Berozgari hai hai and Bhrashtachar hai hai.

Notably Italia was arrested in January this year by Crime Branch for allegedly impersonating as a police official and circulating an audio clip of his conversation with the Dy CM. Italia had once served as a Police Constable.

The audio clip had gone viral in social media in which Italia, who had identified himself as Gopal Patel and claimed to be working as a Constable with Madhavpura Police Station, was heard telling the Dy CM that the recent ordinance (of that time which has not turned in to an act) to strengthen liquor prohibition law has failed to serve its stated purpose. He had said that the ordinance and subsequent crackdown by police on illegal activities related to liquor had only increased prices of alcohol. When the Dy CM asked him to work diligently to achieve the desired result of liquor law, Italia complained that his seniors were not allowing him to do his duty properly.He was later released on bail in that matter.

DeshGujarat