Cong leader Ashok Gehlot meets agitating Patidar members

Amid an ongoing agitation by the Patidars over the death of a member of the community, who was allegedly beaten up while in police custody, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot today met the kin of the deceased here.
Gehlot, accompanied by the Congress' state chief Bharatsinh Solanki, senior leader Siddharth Patel and others, met the protesting Patidar leaders and Mahendra Patel, the father of 28-year-old Ketan, who had died on Monday under mysterious circumstances while in judicial custody.
After meeting the Patidar leaders outside the postmortem room of the civil hospital where they are protesting, Gehlot told reporters the way the BJP government in the state has been ignoring people's demands shows that "it does not believe in democracy."

The Congress' state election in-charge, said, "I do not see why the government should not accept the demand (to register FIR for murder against those responsible for Ketan's death) when the entire community is demanding the same.
"It appears as if the government does not believe in democracy," he said and accused the state government and the Centre of being "arrogant."
Solanki said a Congress delegation will meet Gujarat Governor O P Kohli tomorrow urging him to intervene in the matter and ask the government to take strong action against those responsible for the "murder".

"The first thing is to register an FIR against those responsible and send them to jail. Tomorrow, we will meet the governor with the demand that he intervenes and asks the government to take strong action against those responsible for this," he said.

Ketan, a resident of Balol village near Mehsana, was in judicial custody at Mehsana Sub-Jail since June 4 in a theft case. He died at the civil hospital on the night of June 5 within hours of being admitted there.
Police had said Ketan was arrested on June 3 after a shop owner in Balol village complained that he had stolen around Rs 5,000 from his shop.
Though police have denied that it was a case of custodial death, local Patel leaders and Ketan's kin alleged that he died due to police torture when he was in their custody before being sent to jail custody by a local court on June 4.