SURAT -- Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel, who was arrested on sedition charges, was today released from the Lajpore Central Jail after nine months amid rousing welcome by his supporters.
The district administration, meanwhile, has imposed Section 144 (of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in the region to ensure that no untoward incident takes place in the wake of his release.
Patel was granted bail on Friday by the Gujarat High Court in both sedition cases against him.
However, one of the conditions of the bail was that he would not be permitted to enter Gujarat for the next six months. The other condition was that he would have to file an undertaking.
Patel had been booked with sedition charges on 19 October over his provocative remarks where he had asked his supporters to kill policemen rather than commit suicide for the cause of reservation.
Patel was arrested and imprisoned in a jail in Surat after he led a huge revolt of the Patidar community against the ruling BJP Government in the state.
Patel's arrest was followed by large-scale arson and violence by his supporters in some of Gujarat's biggest towns.
