A police sub-inspector in Amreli became a victim of the bitter Leuva Patel rivalry here and was transferred for mentioning the name of state Law Minister Dileep Sanghani in an FIR lodged by a reported RTI activist alleging assault by the minister’s men.
Hours after Amreli taluka police station sub-inspector R P Mirza mentioned Sanghani’s name in an FIR registered in connection with the attack on RTI activist Nathala Sukhadiya on Monday, he was transferred to headquarters. Mirza was relieved with immediate effect through a transfer letter that he received on Monday night.
The incident itself has taken a political turn exposing the rivalry between two powerful factions of the politically influential Leuva Patels, one supporting Chief Minister Narendra Modi while the other rooting for his bete noire Keshubhai Patel, who is also a Leuva Patel.
Meanwhile, the BJP today accused Bavku Unghad, the Congress MLA from Babra who is a staunch supporter of Keshubhai, of being behind the FIR and called Sukhadiya a “blackmailer”. It said Sanghani, who is the Amreli MLA, was dragged into the case at the behest of Unghad.
BJP’s Amreli unit held a press conference on Tuesday and dismissed Sukhadiya as “a blackmailer who has been doing all these at the behest of Congress”.
Sukhadiya, a farmer from Devalia village in Amreli district, had filed a complaint early Monday morning against six locals, including one Raghu Jebaliya, alleging they had attacked him with wooden and iron sticks on Sunday night. In the FIR, registered by Mirza, Sukhadiya alleged that the attackers told him they were “sent by Sanghani to finish him”.
Sukhadiya claimed his recent RTI queries and their responses, which he shared with media, had exposed injustice and corruption by the minister and his kin. He claimed he had saved a grassland from going into the hands of a private party through his RTI campaign and that Sanghani’s kin in Vankiya village had to demolish a concrete fencing that caused water-logging in other farmers’ farms.
When contacted, Sanghani said, “It’s a bogus case. Everything has been planned by Congress MLA Bavku Unghad.”
Unghad was one of several BJP MLAs who parted ways with the saffron party. In 2007, like four other BJP rebels, he contested on a Congress ticket and was the only one among them to retain his seat.
Unghad was also named as a co-accused in a recent case filed against Keshubhai, MJP founder Gordhan Zadaphia and others in Bhesan court for allegedly inciting riots through their speeches.
