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Hardik Patel's Vehicle Takes U-Turn And Flees Gujarat Police

Hardik Patel's Vehicle Takes U-Turn And Flees Gujarat Police
Hardik Patel, center, 22-year-old firebrand leader of Patidar Andolan Samiti addresses a press conference in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015. Patel is leading an agitation for members of Gujarat state Patel community demanding government benefits for them under the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
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Hardik Patel, center, 22-year-old firebrand leader of Patidar Andolan Samiti addresses a press conference in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015. Patel is leading an agitation for members of Gujarat state Patel community demanding government benefits for them under the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

NEW DELHI -- While Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti is fleeing the Delhi Police, Hardik Patel, leader of the Patel-quota movement, is on the run from authorities in Gujarat.

The 22-year-old leader of the reservation movement reportedly held a public meeting in Tenpur village of Bayad taluka in north Gujarat’s Aravalli district on Tuesday, but he fled the scene before the police could detain him for allegedly organising the event without permission.

"As we came to know about it, our police team went there to detain him but he ran away from there to evade detention," said Inspector General of Police Hasmmukh Patel, CNN-IBN reported.

"After the meeting, we intercepted their (Hardik's supporters) four vehicles outside the village, but two of the vehicles took a U-turn and managed to flee. Hardik was in one of them," the police official said.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat High Court, took up a habeas corpus petition on the missing 22-year-old leader, and met after midnight to hear the matter urgently, The Indian Express reported.

In an order issued at 2:30 in the morning, the court directed the state authorities to produce Hardik by Thursday, NDTV reported.

On Saturday, he was briefly arrested for attempting to carry out the "Ekta March" in Surat despite prohibitory orders.

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