Hardik, 2 Cong MLAs detained while going to meet sacked IPS officer

Palanpur, August 14

Congress leader Hardik Patel, two party MLAs and 27 of their supporters were on Wednesday detained while they were on way to Palanpur district jail in Gujarat to meet sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, police said.

Bhatt, who was in June awarded life sentence in a custodial death case, is currently lodged at the Palanpur district jail.

Hardik Patel, the Patidar quota agitation spearhead who joined the Congress earlier this year ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, was detained as soon as he and other party leaders entered Palanpur to go to the jail to meet Bhatt, Banaskantha Superintendent of Police Niraj Badgujar said.

“We were expecting law and order issues at the jail in Palanpur, so we detained around 30 people, including Hardik Patel, Congress MLAs from Palanpur and Patan and their supporters, when they entered Palanpur to go to the sub-jail to meet Bhatt,” he said.

The two MLAs who have been detained are Mahesh Patel of Palanpur and Kirit Patel of Patan.

Sacked IPS officer’s wife Shweta Bhatt on Tuesday announced that she would accompany her husband’s supporters (most of them women), who wanted to tie ‘rakhi’ to him, to Palanpur jail, the police official said.

“Hardik Patel said he would also accompany her. While Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife has been allowed to go to meet him as she is a family member, we have detained the others,” he said. PTI