Three aides of Hardik Patel get bail in sedition case

Three aides of quota agitation leader Hardik Patel were today granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in a sedition case after they submitted a written undertaking stating that they will not indulge in any activity that may cause law and order problem.

The court of Justice A J Desai granted bail to Dinesh Patel, Ketan Patel and Chirag Patel who were behind the bars since October last year in a sedition case registered here.

In an undertaking submitted to the court, the trio said that they will not indulge in any activity that may cause law and order problem in the state.

After they gave the undertaking, government pleader and the Investigating Officer of the sedition case said that they do have problem if the three are given bail in view of the undertaking submitted by them.

The court granted the bail on the condition that they will not to leave their respective home districts for another six months after being out on bail.

The IO J S Ghedam submitted before the court that in case they are enlarged on bail, they will have no objection.  A similar stand was taken by the public prosecutor, which was considered by the court before granting them bail.

While Dinesh belongs to Gandhinagar, Ketan and Chirag belong to Ahmedabad. They will have to deposit a bail bond of Rs 25,000.

They had earlier presented their written undertaking before a lower court which had rejected their bail plea on the ground that they were not trustworthy and did not guarantee that they will not commit crime again.

The trio were arrested in October last year along with Hardik and are facing charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy that were filed by Ahmedabad Crime Branch police.  They are lodged at Sabarmati Central Jail here.

Hardik and three others were charged with IPC sections 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy).

They are accused of inciting violence to mount pressure on the government for accepting the demand of reservations for the Patel community.

Hardik’s lawyer Zubin Bharda submitted before the court that speeches, phone call interceptions and utterances attributed to the petitioner in the charge sheet filed by the Surat and Ahmedabad Police can’t be termed to be violative of law.

He said that Hardik cannot be said to have committed sedition and attempt to conspire to wage war against the government on these grounds.