Highway block case: Hardik Patel moves discharge plea

Quota agitation leader Hardik Patel today moved a discharge plea in a court here in a case wherein he was booked for instructing fellow activists to block the Ahmedabad-Mumbai national highway in support of demand for reservation to the Patel community.
The court of judicial magistrate at Kathor in Surat district A C Malek admitted the petition and kept the matter for further hearing on September 19.
Hardik said in his application that he was under police detention in Rajkot at the time of the incident and hence he should be discharged from the case.
Patel was arrested in the case in which he was made an accused for allegedly instructing and instigating Patidar community members agitating for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to block national highway.

Hardik was made an accused by Kathor police under sections 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant), 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC and other sections for damage to public properties, even when he was not present in the city when the incident took place.
Police had made Hardik an accused in the case two months after the incident, and the court was about to frame charges against him and other members of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) when Hardik moved his discharge petition through his lawyer Yashwantsinh Vala.

He said he cannot be made an accused since he was under Rajkot police detention at the time when a group of agitators blocked national highway to protest detention of Hardik by Rajkot police ahead of India-South Africa match on October 18, 2015.

PAAS members had blocked the national highway passing from Kamrej area on the outskirts of city, following which they were arrested on various charges including section 188, section 341 and others of the IPC.
Hardik was arrested on December 6 the same year and later released on bail.