Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader and Congress backed Hardik Patel’s close aide, Nikhil Savani, surrendered in a local court of Surat, Gujarat, in connection to a 2016 case pertaining to rioting, damaged caused to public property and arson, following which he was sent to judicial custody, reports DeshGujarat.
A case was lodged in 2016 in Sarthana police station, Surat after Nikhil Savani was allegedly involved in ST bus torching case.
Visnagar rioting case; Ex PAAS convener Nikhil Savani surrenders himself before #Surat court.#Gujarat #TV9News pic.twitter.com/uh7yzp9bts
— Tv9 Gujarati (@tv9gujarati) February 20, 2019
According to recent reports, Savani’s advocate, Yashwant Vala, confirmed that his client was willing to surrender before the Crime Branch but seeing the police’ unwillingness Savani had decided to surrender in the court of law.
Nikhil Savani, before surrendering alleged that the State government was planning to foil a conspiracy against him prior to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He furthered that before the government could devise a strategy and get him arrested in all the pending charges leveled against him, he decided to surrender before the court of law.
Advocate, Yashwant Vala also said that the court had sent a notice to the crime branch asking whether they wanted Nikhil’s custody for remand or not.
Coincidently, Nikhil Savani’s confidante, Hardik Patel also has two cases of sedition against him. One in Surat and the other in Ahmedabad. Last year during the same time, a sessions court in Ahmedabad has rejected the discharge plea filed by Hardik Patel. The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader had filed the discharge application seeking relief from the sedition charges against him. He was booked by the Crime Branch on sedition charges after he the large-scale violence in Gujrat in 2015 seeking reservation for Patidars.
Hardik had earlier suffered a major setback in the Surat case too when the Gujrat High Court had rejected his plea seeking to quash of the sedition case.
The Patidar Andolan in Gujrat had brought the state to a standstill in 2015 as widespread incidents of violence and clashes had caused intense law and order situations. A total of 9 people had died and the Army was deployed to maintain peace. A total of 5000 paramilitary personnel had to be posted in different cities to help control the situation. Then 22-year-old Hardik Patel had made several objectionable remarks in a rally that had turned violent.
Hardik Patel is now convicted for causing riots in Mehasana and has been found guilty of charges related to arson and creating a ruckus at the office of BJP MLA Rushikesh Patel.
