AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday refused to grant bail to a 20-year-old from Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha district, who is accused of participating in the Shobha yatra taken out on Ram Navmi which resulted in communal violence in April.
Prashantkumar Pandya sought bail from the high court with his lawyer submitting that the procession on April 10 was carried out with police permission, and the procession was not provided security by the state government and therefore the crowd was panicked.
After perusing case papers, Justice Samir Dave, who refused to release Pandya on bail at this stage, questioned the lawyer about the applicant wielding a sword during the procession. To this, the lawyer replied in affirmative and said, "In cases of festivals of Ram Navmi and Guru Nanak Jayanti, people take weapons during processions."
The court was not inclined for bail and asked the applicant to approach the court after the police file chargesheet.
On the day of Ram Navmi, a procession was carried out, which was attacked in Chhaparia locality. This led to communal riots that lasted for two days. The police arrested 11 persons and they were remanded to three-day police custody. The police named 40 persons as accused in the case of rioting.
Another town where communal disturbances were reported over Ram Navmi procession was Khambhat in Anand district. One person lost his life. Nine persons were arrested in Khambhat. A group from the minority community has approached the HC seeking directions to the police to take action against the processionists, who have been booked for rioting.
