Cong MLA among 21 held for attacking policemen during protest in Gujarat

Gujarat Congress MLA Kirit Patel and 20 others were arrested on Thursday in connection with alleged assault on policemen during a protest at a university in the Patan district on December 16, officials said.

Patel, who represents the Patan constituency, ex-MLA of Siddhpur Chandanji Thakor and nearly 200 Congress workers and members of the party’s student wing NSUI had protested at Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University (HNGU) over liquor consumption in the hostel.

The next day, the Patan ‘B’ division police booked Patel and others for allegedly abusing and assaulting cops during the demonstration, officials said.

While some of the accused were arrested, Patel and Thakor had been absconding, said Deputy Superintendent of Police K K Pandya.

“We arrested Kirit Patel, Chandanji Thakor and 19 other Congress workers after they surrendered before local police. We had already arrested 12 persons in the past. All these individuals are accused of verbally abusing and attacking on-duty policemen during a protest at the university,” Pandya told reporters.

Patel and others have been booked under BNS sections 121-1 (causing hurt to a public servant to prevent them from performing their duties), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 224 (threat of injury to public servant).

The opposition party MLA and Congress workers on Monday protested on the HNGU campus alleging that the police did not take action against three youths caught drinking alcohol in a varsity hostel room on December 8.

Liquor consumption is illegal in Gujarat.

Three basketball players from Anand district, put up in a room in the boys’ hostel ahead of their district-level tournament in Patan, were caught consuming liquor by the rector.

Patel claimed though the staff handed them over to the police, the trio was let off without any action.

During the protest, Patel got into an argument with some police personnel after he was denied entry to vice-chancellor KC Poria’s chamber. In a purported video, which went viral on social media, Patel can be seen clutching a policeman’s face from across the grille outside the VC’s office