A court in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district has issued an arrest warrant against Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Hardik Patel for failing to appear before it in a 2017 case in which he is accused of violating a government order.
Ahead of the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections, Hardik Patel made a political speech in violation of government order at a village.
Additional chief judicial magistrate D D Shah at Dhrangadhra issued the arrest warrant against Patel for failure to appear the court. Through its order dated February 2, the court ordered the Dhrangadhra taluka police station officer in Surendranagar district to arrest Patel and produce him before the court without fail.
The order was received by the police station on February 11, an official confirmed.
A first information report (FIR) was registered at Dhrangadhra taluka police station on January 12, 2018, after Patel and a co-accused Kaushik Patel were found to have violated the condition of the permission granted to them to organise a meeting at Haripar village in the district.
In FIR it was stated the duo had sought permission to organise a meeting at the village on November 26, 2017, ahead of the Assembly elections. While they were granted permission, they allegedly violated the notification issued by the additional district magistrate in a speech delivered during the meeting.
They were booked under sections 37 (3) and 135 of the Gujarat (Bombay) Police Act, 1951, dealing with punishment for disobeying government orders.
Notably, a court at Jamnagar had last week acquitted Patel in a similar case for making a political speech in violation of a government order at a rally at Dhutarpar village in November 2017.
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