Hardik booked for keeping cell phone battery in jail in Gujarat

The police have lodged a case against Hardik Patel, the jailed leader of the Patidar community's pro-quota agitation, for keeping a cell phone battery and trying to smuggle a parcel out of Lajpore prison in Gujarat.

The parcel, which jail guards seized, contained a mobile phone battery, a charger and a letter to be leaked to the media, said a police officer in Sachin town in Surat district where Lajpore prison is situated.

Patel has been lodged in Lajpore jail since October last year.

The jail authorities filed the case on Wednesday night, said police inspector M. Shaikh.

When Hardik was being taken to Visnagar on March 8 for being produced in court, he tried to pass the parcel to an unidentified person, Shaikh said.

The jail guards accompanying him saw him and seized the packet which contained a mobile phone battery, a charger and a letter to be leaked to the media.

The police claimed that the person to whom Patel tried to hand over the packet managed to give the slip to the jail guards and fled.

Earlier, two mobile phones without SIM cards were found near Patel's ward in the jail.