Relief for BJP's Hardik as HC lifts entry ban in Mehsana post-Patidar stir

The Gujarat high court on Friday granted relief to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Hardik Patel by removing for a year a bail condition prohibiting him from entering the state's Mehsana district in a rioting case connected with the 2015 Patidar quota stir.

The court of Justice SH Vora granted temporary relief to Patel, who had filed the bail modification petition on November 7 on the ground that he wanted to offer prayers at the temple of his kuldevi (local deity).

The bail condition that he will not enter his home district Mehsana has been removed for a year, Patel's lawyer Rafik Lokhandwala said.

Patel was on Thursday declared as the BJP's candidate for Viramgam seat in Ahmedabad district.

A Gujarat court had, in July 2018, sentenced Patel and his aides Lalji Patel and AK Patel to two years in jail for rioting and arson that took place on July 23, 2015 in Visnagar town during the Patidar reservation agitation.

On that day, a mob had torched a car and vandalised the office of Visnagar BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel.

The Gujarat high court had, in August 2018, suspended the lower court's order and granted him bail.

The HC barred him from entering Mehsana as a bail condition and this continued even as his appeal against conviction remains pending before the court.