Charge sheet filed against Hardik Patel in second sedition case

The city crime branch has filed a charge sheet against Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and three of his aides claiming that they deliberately indulged in activities which are subject to be charged under sedition and conspiracy to wage war against government.

The charge sheet, running into around 2,700 pages, was filed in the metropolitan court against Hardik, and his aides Ketan Patel, Dinesh Bambhaniya and Chirag Patel.

Hardik's two other aides - Amrish Patel and Alpesh Kathiriya - whose names were in the main FIR but have not been arrested yet, are shown as 'absconders' in the charge sheet.

Hardik and his aides are charged under IPC section 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy).

As the offence is triable in the sessions court, the metropolitan court will transfer the case to it in due course, said city crime branch Assistant Commissioner of Police K N Patel, the complainant in the FIR which was filed on October 21 last year.

The crime branch had submitted one part of the charge sheet on Saturday evening, while some related documents were submitted today, Patel said.

This is the second charge sheet filed against Hardik in the sedition case of Ahmedabad.

Earlier, on January 8, the Surat police had also filed a charge sheet in another sedition case against the 22-year-old firebrand Patel leader in the city.

Police have attached call detail records, call interception transcripts, CDs containing video and audio clips, forensic reports of mobile phones of Patel leaders, Hardik's speech at GMDC ground on August 25 last year, and statements of several witnesses in the charge sheet.

They have also included statements of 502 witnesses, including police officials who lodged various complaints across the state, forensic experts, officials of railways, state transport and BRTS, people who witnessed violence and those policemen who witnessed stone-pelting and burning of police stations and police chowkies.

According to the charge sheet, Hardik and his aides, who were part of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, were allegedly involved in inciting Patel community youths to resort to violence as part of their pre-planned conspiracy to put undue pressure on government to accept their demand of reservation to their community under OBC category.

The charge sheet said that when Hardik was briefly detained at GMDC ground on August 25 last year after the mega rally, his five aides deliberately spread misleading messages among their community claiming that he was wrongfully held.

Such inflammatory messages and rumours resulted in mass scale riots across Gujarat, which forced police to impose curfew in several parts of state, as people resorted to stone pelting, arson and damaging public property for almost four days, stated the charge sheet.