Gujarat govt to withdraw 90 percent cases against Patidar agitation leaders

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government today said it would withdraw 90 per cent police cases lodged against Patidar community members during the state-wide agitation, led by their leader Hardik Patel, for reservation under OBC category last year. [caption id=“attachment_1538023” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. PTI[/caption] A review committee headed by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel met on 29 July to discuss the matter “sympathetically” after leaders from the agitating community made repeated appeals to her to get the cases withdrawn, an official statement said. “After discussion, Anandiben decided to withdraw around 90 percent of cases lodged against Patidar community members in connection with the (reservation) agitation,” it said. The government had earlier ordered withdrawal of 155 cases. At a meeting last Friday, Anandiben ordered to withdraw 54 more cases in addition to the 155 cases. She also ordered the state home department to take necessary steps to withdraw an additional 182 cases at the earliest, the statement said. With this, 391, or nearly 90 percent, out of a total of 438 cases lodged against Patidar community members will be withdrawn. A mass gathering of the Patidar community members on 25 August last year had turned violent. Patidar leader and convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti Hardik Patel was also among those arrested in connection with the vandalism. He was recently granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in two sedition cases as well as Visnagar loot and vandalism case and is presently residing in Udaipur as per the bail condition.