Ahmedabad crime branch refused to arrest Hardik Patel and his supporters in a case filed last week for rioting and arson at a BJP municipal councillor's residence in the city. On Monday, Hardik and his dozen odd supporters, who too are named in the case, approached the crime branch to surrender but they were turned away on the grounds that the investigation officer (IO) in the case was out of station.
"Mr.Patel was required to present himself before us every Monday. So, Mr. Patel asked us to arrest him and others but as the IO (investigating officer) is out of station, we told him we will do it later," assistant commissioner of police(ACP) B. C. Solanki said.
On March 20, Ramol police station in Ahmedabad lodged a rioting and arson case against Mr. Patel and 59 other Patel quota agitators for creating a ruckus outside the house of BJP councillor, who lodged the case against the agitators.
After the FIR was lodged, the local police station arrested 13 persons named in the FIR while the case was handed over to the special agency Crime Branch, which had earlier booked Hardik and others in sedition case.
