Patidar Power! Days after parading her in public, police say no evidence, woman walks out of jail

Immediately after her release, Payal Goti was offered a fresh job in the Amreli Jilla Madhyastha Sahakari Bank in what is being seen as an attempt to pacify the Patidars, electorally the most influential community known for its support to the ruling party.

Ahmedabad: Days after a Patidar woman under police arrest was paraded in full public view in the pretext of "reconstruction of crime scene" and community leaders started holding protest against the police and the BJP in Amreli district, the police filed an affidavit in the court on Friday stating that the woman had no role to play in the alleged offense.

Based on the affidavit the principal district and sessions judge, Amreli, granted the woman, Payal Goti, bail and by the evening, she walked out of jail. Immediately after her release, she was offered a fresh job in the Amreli Jilla Madhyastha Sahakari Bank in what is being seen as an attempt to pacify the Patidars, electorally the most influential community known for its mass support to the ruling party.

The community leaders had started protesting across the state specially Saurashtra and Surat where they hold the sway. To pacify the community, BJP leader Dileep Sanghani, also the chairman of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), met with the woman in jail and assured the family all help.

The woman, Goti, was arrested by the local police on Saturday along with two BJP workers -Manish Vaghasia, Ashok Magroliya and one Jitu Khatra. It was alleged that Vaghasia with the help of co-accused forged the letterhead of Kishor Kanpariya, president of Amreli taluka panchayat and wrote defamatory contents against the local BJP MLA Kaushik Vekariya, who is also the deputy whip of the party in the state assembly. Goti was accused by the police to have typed the letter which was then shared on social media.

This resulted into a political controversy and Kishor Kanpariya filed a complaint with the police. The police found involvement of four accused including Goti and arrested them. Goti's lawyer Sandip Pandya told the court during the hearing that she was arrested at 12 in the night upon which the judge remarked that arresting a woman after sunset was a breach of Supreme Court's guidelines.

Pandya also said in the court that "Goti was merely an employee who used to work from 9 AM to 5 PM. The computer (used in the alleged offense) was not in her custody nor did she make the letter viral on social media."

Pandya claimed that she was arrested and paraded due to "political pressure." He claimed that the woman was physically and mentally tortured by the police. When the government lawyer asked why she didn't complain when produced in the court following her arrest, Pandya responded that "she was under pressure and got nervous."

A number of Patidar politicians and community leaders came in support of the woman terming her "public parade" as an "insult to the daughter of the community." The protests started simmering as far as Surat, where a large number of Patidars from Amreli have settled.

This is not an isolated case where the police have paraded the suspects under custody in full public view. Such cases are rampant and being reported from across the state, which is said to be in violation of Supreme Court guidelines.