Hardik Patel's close aide was arrested for holding a rally without taking police permission a year back
Quota spearhead Hardik Patel's close aide Dinesh Bambhaniya was today arrested by police in Bayad taluka of Arvalli district for organising a public rally without taking police permission at Tenpur village of Bayad a year back.
The FIR under IPC section 188 (disobeying government order) was registered against Hardik, Mr Bambhaniya and some other leaders of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) at Bayad police station on September 22 last year.
However, Mr Bambhaniya was arrested from his residence in Gandhinagar today, over a year after the case was filed against him.
"Bambhaniya is one of the co-accused in a case of disobeying government order by organising a rally in Tenpur on September 22 (2015). Today, we have arrested him from Gandhinagar and taken him to Bayad for further procedure," Bayad taluka police inspector H J Banker said.
Hardik, who was arrested in two sedition cases earlier and released on conditional bail on July 15 this year, was not arrested in this case.
On September 22 last year, in a dramatic turn of events, Hardik escaped from the rally in Tenpur after police raided the venue. During midnight, Mr Bambhaniya along with other PAAS leader Ketan Patel filed a habeas corpus petition in Gujarat High Court, claiming that Hardik was abducted by some persons, who appeared like police personnel.
On the evening of September 23, Hardik surfaced under mysterious circumstances and claimed that he was abducted by some persons, who appeared like police.
Meanwhile, after learning about Mr Bambhaniya's arrest, Hardik slammed the BJP-led Gujarat government.
In a statement, Hardik alleged that BJP government only misguided his community by announcing to withdraw all the cases against Patel agitators two months back.
On July 31, Gujarat government had announced that it would withdraw 90 per cent police cases lodged against Patidar community members during the state-wide agitation for getting reservation under OBC category last year.
"BJP government had recently announced that almost 90 per cent cases are already withdrawn. If that is true, then why Mr Bambhaniya is arrested today in an insignificant case of IPC section 188? It proves that BJP only misguided us with tall claims," Hardik, who is presently in Udaipur in Rajasthan, said.
While granting bail to him in a sedition cases in July, the Gujarat High Court set a condition that Hardik will have to stay outside Gujarat for the next six months.