Abducted by unidentified revolver-wielding men, threatened to quit stir: Hardik Patel

GANDHINAGAR | NEW DELHI: Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti convener Hardik Patel resurfaced on Dhrangadhra highway in Saurashtra on Wednesday afternoon, almost 24 hours after he gave police the slip from Tainpur village in Aravalli district. Hardik was brought to Ahmedabad by his lawyer Babubhai Mangukia later in the day and he will be produced in the Gujarat HC on Thursday morning.

He claimed that he was abducted by unidentified revolver-wielding men, kept in a vehicle the whole night and threatened to leave the movement before he was dropped at the highway. However, Gujarat minister of state for home affairs Rajni Patel said Hardik’s claims were baseless.

Patels lawyer Babubhai Mangukia, who had filed a habeas corpus writ on Tuesday night in the Gujarat high court — following Justice MR Shah ordered that the police produce him by Thursday morning — told ET, "Hardik is with me now and we shall produce him before the court tomorrow morning." Mangukia said that he went down personally to bring Patel back to Ahmedabad from Halvad as he feared that he could be abducted on the way.

"Three police cars are still following me but they can’t arrest Hardik and even if they do, since the offence against Hardik is bailable, they’ll have to release him right after arresting," Mangukia claimed.

Patel was scheduled to address the media in the morning but his press conference was cancelled. The PAAS convener went missing on Tuesday after the police cracked down on the agitators at Tainpur village at Vayad block of Aravalli district.

Undeterred by the police crackdown, the Patel Nav Nirman Sena has announced that Patel will hold four rallies in poll-bound Bihar in support of JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar. The organisation said that Patel will hold rallies in Bhagalpur, Bhabua, Nalanda and Muzaffarpur in the next one month for the upliftment of Kurmis, the caste that Bihar CM Nitish Kumar belongs to. These places have sizable Kurmi population.

"Under the leadership of Hardik, the Patel Nav Nirman Sena will unite the 27 crore population of the Kurmi samaj (Kurmi, Gujjar, Maratha and Patidar) across the nation and fight for the upliftment of society and their right aggressively," Sena secretary Akhilesh Katiyar said.