Hardik Patel, aide arrested in Gujarat on charges of assault, dacoity

Ahmedabad: The police on Monday night detained Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel and his close aide Dinesh Bambhania in an “assault” case registered against them in Patan town of North Gujarat on Saturday. One Narendra Patel had filed a complaint against Hardik, Bambhania and four others at Patan B Division police station on Saturday. On the basis of the complaint, the police had registered a case against them under IPC sections 395 (dacoity), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt). “Hardik Patel was detained from Anand district on Monday by the police and he will be handed over the Patan police, who will then formally arrest him in a case registered on Saturday against six people, including him,” police sources said. Bambhania was detained from Rajkot by the crime branch of that city. “We detained Dinesh Bambhania from the Gita Mandir area of the city in connection with the case registered in Patan. We will hand him over to the Patan police,” Rajkot city crime branch police inspector HM Gadhvi said. [caption id=“attachment_3576147” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Hardik Patel. AFP[/caption] In the complaint, Narendra, a former activist of Hardik-led Patidar Anamant Andolan Samiti (PAAS), had alleged that the quota stir spearhead and others roughed him up at Navjivan Hotel in Patan when he had gone to meet them on Saturday. Hardik had held a public meeting in Patan on that day and as per Narendra’s complaint, he had gone to meet the PAAS leader before the rally. During the rally, Hardik had indirectly urged the Patidar community to give a chance to the Congress in the upcoming state assembly elections. The Patidar community has been a loyal vote bank for the BJP in Gujarat. However, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Monday slammed Hardik over his appeal and dubbed him as an “agent of the Congress”. “These people (BJP) used us too much. It happened so because, I assume, we did not have any option. You may still think that we do not have any option as we still do not want to go with the Congress because they did nothing for us,” Hardik had said. “At the same time, I believe that we should also do something which makes the Congress trust us… I want you to give me a promise to uproot this rule of fear and hooliganism,” he had said. Talking to reporters in Patan on Monday, the deputy CM said, “Hardik has now shown his true colours. I think he should join the Congress now. We have been saying for a long that he was a Congress agent. We now stand vindicated as Hardik himself spoke in support of the Congress. We are happy that the truth has finally come out.” Assembly polls are slated in Gujarat for later in 2017.