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Industrialist Jaysukh Patel, the main accused in the 2020 Gujarat suspension bridge collapse that claimed 135 lives, received criticism after he was felicitated at an event organised by the Patidar community in Morbi district. While the victims' kin expressed anguish over the event, the organisers said that Patel, currently out on bail, was honoured in his capacity as the son of late OR Patel, a philanthropist who founded the Ajanta Group. Patel was weighed in modak (sweet dumpling) on a scale at the function organised by Kadva Patidar Kanya Kelavani Mandal on the outskirts of Morbi town on Friday to mark the Pran Pratishtha' of the Uma Sanskardham temple. The modak will be packed in 60,000 boxes and distributed among Patidar families, the organisers said. It is a matter of sadness for us to see the main accused in the Morbi suspension bridge collapse being honoured like that, said Narendra Parmar, a member of the association representing victims and their families. A court recent
The Supreme Court Friday granted bail to BJP leader Hardik Patel in a case lodged against him in connection with the violence during the Patidar stir in Gujarat in 2015 subject to his "diligent participation" in the investigation. A bench of Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli made its earlier order granting protection to Patel absolute. "This court had in February 2020 issued notice and had granted interim protection. Three-and-a-half years have passed since then. In these circumstances, we see no reason to alter the order at this juncture. "Hence, the interim protection granted to the petitioner shall continue till the completion of further process, subject to his diligent participation in the process, if called upon to do so," the bench said while disposing of the plea filed by Patel. The top court was hearing a 2020 plea filed by Patel challenging the Gujarat High Court order rejecting his anticipatory bail plea after considering the government's objection on grounds of
The Patidar community, a section of which had voted against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2017 Assembly polls held in the backdrop of the quota agitation in Gujarat, returned to the ruling outfit in the just concluded polls as it won almost all the seats dominated by the influential social group in 2022. The BJP has done extremely well in the Patidar-dominated constituencies of the state, winning almost every seat that has significant Patel population. Polling for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly took place on December 1 and 5, and votes were counted on December 8. In the Saurashtra region, the Congress had won Patidar-dominated seats of Morbi, Tankara, Dhoraji and Amreli, among others in 2017. However, all these Assembly segments this time went in the BJP's kitty. In Patidar-dominated Surat, where the AAP was banking on the community to bag a few seats, the social group by and large backed the ruling party. The saffron outfit won Patidar seats of Varachha Road, Katargam