Hardik Patel moves High Court for bail

Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, who is behind the bars in a sedition case, today filed a bail application in the Gujarat High Court. It is likely to come up for hearing next week, his lawyer Rafiq Lokhandwala said.

The sessions court here had rejected his bail plea on Tuesday. Hardik has contended in the application that sedition is a colonial law enacted by the British to suppress the freedom struggle and it was invoked wrongfully against him by the Ahmedabad police when he was only fighting for his community.

The police, who have relied on Hardik's intercepted telephonic conversations with his associates during the agitation last year, have failed to link it with the violence, the application says. The sessions court had observed while refusing Hardik bail that if released, he might repeat the offence.

Hardik and three others have been charged with IPC sections 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy). They are accused of inciting the violence to mount pressure on the government for accepting the demand of reservations in OBC quota for the Patel community. Hardik is at present in Lajpore jail in Surat district where another sedition case has been filed against him.