Hardik Patel files fresh bail pleas in two sedition cases

Ahmedabad/Surat, Jan 22: Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel on Friday filed fresh bail applications in courts in Ahmedabad and Surat where charge sheets in two sedition cases have been filed against him.

In Ahmedabad, he moved the court of additional sessions judge N G Dave. His lawyer Rafiq Lokhandwala contends in the application that the sedition case against his client is false, frivolous, fabricated and politically motivated and filed only to suppress the agitation of the Patel community.

The agitation for reservation cannot be said to be unlawful in any manner, the bail application says.

Hardik and five others are charged under IPC sections 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against the government) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) in the case registered here.

Advocate Yashvantsinh Vala filed bail application on Hardik's behalf in the court of principal sessions judge Gita Gopi at Surat regarding the other sedition case.

In that plea too Hardik has claimed that he is being framed up with the political motive of suppressing the ongoing Patel quota agitation.

His lawyers had withdrawn his earlier bail applications which became infructuous after the police filed charge sheets in both the cases this month.

Hardik is at present lodged in the Lajpore jail of Surat. The fresh bail applications will come up for hearing in due course.

PTI