Hardik Patel sent to one-day police remand by Surat court

Surat: A local court on Monday remanded Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel in one-day police custody in a case in which he had allegedly instructed his fellow activists to block a national highway passing from Surat two months back.

Judicial Magistrate of Kathor rural court J D Solanki sent the 22-year-old firebrand leader to a day's remand of Kamrej police.

Hardik was arrested from Lajpore jail on Sunday by Kamrej police for allegedly instructing his fellow activists to block national highway passing from Surat after he was detained in Rajkot on October 18.

His arrest was made through transfer warrant from Lajpore jail where he had been lodged for the last two months in a sedition case.

On October 18, when Hardik was detained ahead of the India-South Africa cricket match in Rajkot, some of his aides, including Surat convener of agitating body Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Alpesh Kathiria, had blocked the highway passing from Kamrej area on the outskirts of city to protest against Hardik's detention.

At that time, local police had lodged an FIR against Alpesh and a few other local PAAS workers for causing chaos on the highway.

A few days back, Kathiria was arrested and police learned during his remand that Hardik gave him instructions through phone to block the highway.

Based on this, Hardik's name has been added to the main FIR.

On October 19, Amroli police of Surat arrested Hardik on the charge of sedition for allegedly inciting a fellow activist to kill policemen instead of committing suicide.

Later, Ahmedabad crime branch also booked him on sedition charge.

In a parallel development today, Principal District judge Geeta Gopi, who is hearing the bail application of Hardik, reserved her order till December 10 in a sedition case after arguments on his bail application concluded here.

In the bail application submitted before the Surat District and Sessions court in November, Hardik argued that he is a victim of political vendetta.