AHMEDABAD: Ahead of Assembly polls later this year, the Gujarat government has withdrawn 10 cases lodged in connection to the Patidar quota stir of 2015, an official said on Monday.
Several cases were lodged against participants of the stir in different parts of the state at the time, including against spearhead Hardik Patel, who later joined the Congress.
Applications were submitted in different courts for withdrawal of cases as per directions given by the state government to collectors, said Public Prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt.
While a sessions court here allowed withdrawal of seven cases, the city metropolitan magistrate court allowed the withdrawal of three more cases, dealing with sections 143, 144 (unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapons), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt), among other sections of the Indian Penal Code, the official said.
With this, except for a sedition case against Hardik Patel, no case regarding the Patidar reservation agitation is pending in the sessions court in Ahmedabad, Brahmbhatt said.
He said a metropolitan court is likely to pass an order on April 15 regarding withdrawal of a criminal case against Patel and others registered in Ramol police station in Ahmedabad.
Patel, meanwhile, said all cases connected to the stir must be withdrawn by the BJP government and Patidar youth must be given relief, failing which the Congress would start an agitation.
The withdrawal of the cases comes months ahead of Assembly polls, likely to be held in December, amid a call by the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), which led the stir in 2015, of relaunching the agitation if cases are not withdrawn.