In a major setback for the newly-inducted Congress leader Hardik Patel, the Gujarat High Court on Friday rejected his plea seeking a stay on the sentence awarded to him in the 2015 Visnagar rioting case.
This decision has come ahead of the upcoming general elections and as per the Representation of the People Act, 1951, Patel won’t be able to contest due to his conviction.
The Gujarat government on Tuesday submitted an affidavit opposing Patel’s plea and earlier it had submitted documents listing 24 FIRs against him, including two sedition cases.
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In July 2018, the sessions court at Visnagar had sentenced Patel to two years’ imprisonment to Patel for leading a mob that ransacked local MLA Rishikesh Patel’s office in July 2015. However, the court had granted him bail and suspended his sentence in August 2018, but his conviction did not stay.
Patel, on March 8, had moved the high court seeking suspension of the sentence in the Visnagar rioting case. And now he has only a few days to move to the SC for contesting the Lok Sabha election as the last date for filing nomination for Gujarat polls in the second phase is April 4.